Tag: Steven Gerrard

Celtic begin summer clearout and the season ticket debacle begins.

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The pre-season is now officially upon us and not surprisingly due to what’s going on in the world teams are shedding players from their squads across Scotland at a rate of knots.

That would usually be the case to an extent up here in any case what with so many signed on short term contracts these days but it really is quite startling just how many out of contract players have been allowed to depart without being offered new terms from the moment the calendar hit June 1st.

As for Celtic, the club has pretty succinctly bid farewell to first-team squad players Jonny Hayes and Jozo Simunovic with fringe player Calvin Miller also exiting.

All three players were out of contract and under normal circumstances, Hayes and Jozo may have been offered season-long extensions but in these precarious times, it would appear there is no room for sentiment or a bloated squad.

After impressing at Aberdeen where he was their star player Jonny completed a dream ÂŁ1.3 million move to Celtic in the summer of 2017 and went on to make a very respectable 68 appearances for the club over three seasons, some of which was impacted by injury, and scored two goals.

Mostly fitting in as a utility player on the left side he offered cover for the left-back position and from the subs bench, he was often deployed in a more attacking role.

The highlight of his time at the club was undoubtedly him scoring the second goal in injury time to secure a resounding 2-0 win over a fancied Rangers side at Ibrox on a sunny day on the 1st of September 2019.

A bit of a marmite player amongst the Celtic support no one can ever deny the fact Jonny gave 100% for the jersey and was happy to play in any position where cover was required.

Celtic's Jonny Hayes celebrates his winner during the Ladbrokes ...
Jonny bids farewell. 

Personally, I’ll never forget the tireless shift he put in during our memorable 2-1 win over Lazio at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico last year.

Soon to turn 33 it would be no surprise to see him turn out for a top-six Scottish Premiership or English Championship side next season.

Now we move onto Jozo Simunovic, the Croatian under-21 internationalist who was the biggest signing of the Ronny Deila era after being brought in for a significant fee from Dinamo Zagreb in the wake of Virgil Van Djik’s transfer to Southampton in September 2015.

Big Jozo cost anywhere from ÂŁ3.5 to ÂŁ6.75 million depending on what source you read which was a considerable chunk of the initial ÂŁ13 million Celtic received for Dutch internationalist Van Djik though Celtic ultimately received far more than that for the Dutchman over the years due to various contractual add-ons.

Either way, he wasn’t cheap and much was expected though sadly injury blighted much of his initial time at the club.

He nearly departed for Torino in the summer of 2016 as Brendan Rodgers was beginning his Celtic revolution but the move fell through at the last minute and it was credit to the big Croat for how he reacted throughout.

Sitting outside a sun-kissed cafe, in Turn, awaiting news on developments a Sky Sports News reporter had tracked him down and was determined for him to say something that might be a slight to the club he was on the verge of departing but big Jozo apparently well aware of the politics of football just smiled and stated he had no ill-feeling towards Celtic and was fine with returning to fight for his place should the proposed move to Torino his agent was trying to barter fall through.

In the end, it did and he spent the next four years with the men in hoops.

Often blighted by injuries and with first-team appearances at a premium due to the likes of Boyata, Ajer and laterally recent signing Christopher Jullien being preferred ahead of him he, unfortunately, committed a few defensive howlers when he did get opportunities such as in big European games against Anderlecht and Copenhagen at Celtic Park – the second of which effectively eliminated us from the Europea League knockout phase back in February – and he was sent off at Ibrox against Rangers though we recovered to beat the light blues 3-2 in any case.

Still only 25 it’s safe to say he’ll get plenty of opportunities on the continent and though he failed to live up to his large transfer fee he leaves with two great individual memories the first being scoring the goal to beat Kilmarnock in April of last year that paid tribute perfectly to the recently departed club legend Billy McNeill and then that unforgettable crunching tackle on Kenny Miller that sent the Rangers captain into orbit during Celtic’s resounding 5-1 thumping of the light blues on their own patch back on the 29th of April 2017.

Kenny Miller says referee John Beaton was too lenient | Daily Mail ...
Jozo leaves Kenny Miller in no doubt whose ball it is.

He leaves the club having made 129 appearances and scored five times.

Incredibly he also departs with eleven winners medals to go with the five he’d previously claimed at first club Zagreb. Not a bad haul for a guy still two months away from his 26th birthday.

As for Calvin Miller alas there isn’t much to tell and the 22-year-old probably now regrets not taking up an offer to move to Kilmarnock permanently last summer.

Instead, he decided to see out the final year of his contract at Celtic where he spent most of his time on the sidelines injured.

In total, he made five first-team appearances for Celtic.

Now onto when the game will return and it looks like it’ll be early August and barring some incredible turnaround in the coming two months, it’s pretty certain to be behind closed doors until possibly the end of the year.

Season tickets are on sale and the proposal is you can use them to watch all home games on Sky Sports with the specific details still to be ironed out.

I presumed the club would simply give all season ticket holders the right to have exclusive access to view all home games via Celtic TV like they do for foreign subscribers but it appears the deal has been done with Sky to provide coverage instead.

Rather than vainly attempt to describe how this would be possible, I’ll wait for more info to be forthcoming in greater detail from both the club and broadcaster.

With two months left before the season is proposed to begin, they have plenty of time to iron out the kinks.

Of course, English football is scheduled to return behind closed doors in two weeks time so rather like with the somewhat disastrous introduction of VAR to the top flight game down south last season, Scottish football can use the EPL and lower leagues as a Guinea Pig for what works and what doesn’t.

Things such as carboard cutouts of fans and piping in artificial fan reactions to the stadium have been proposed and could be farcical or may actually elevate it above the glorified training ground games it otherwise will inevitably be.

As Jock Stein said: “Football without fans is nothing.”

I have a feeling big Jock will be proven to be very right on that count in the coming months.

 

 

 

Celtic 2 – 1 Rangers: When the dust has settled!

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I was meant to stick up this post-match article yesterday but alas I partook in a little too much alcohol on Sunday during and after the match and was in no fit state.

Celtic of course claimed three points to move 13 points clear at the top of the league and with only seven league games remaining it’s all pretty much over bar the shouting.

There is plenty of shouting though. Most of it coming from Govan int he wake of the blue half of Ibrox’s 11th defeat in the past 14 encounters with the men in hoops.

To the game itself and Celtic came out of the blocks flying and laid siege to the Rangers goal. Allan McGregor produced a few decent saves and there was a feeling of inevitability about the whole thing. Morelos was effectively cut off up the park and their midfield was pinned back by our constant advances. As expected their right side was targeted with Tavernier a definite weak link in any defensive shape. I was slightly puzzled by the decision to start Jonny Hayes when the experience of Scott Sinclair or the breakneck pace of Oli Burke would have appeared more appropriate but in fairness, he put in a shift and as the half progressed his delivery from set pieces improved.

When a superb first-time pass from Forrest in his own half released Edouard you could only see it ending one way as the Frenchman put Joe Worrall on his back legs as he bore down on goal before finishing superbly.

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French Eddy makes his mark.

Celtic continued the onslaught thereafter and just after the half-hour mark and only four mins after the goal, Alfredo Morelos underlined his fantasy ÂŁ25 million price tag by lashing out at Scott Brown and receiving his fifth red card of the season. The replays showed Brown had slightly clipped his heels but to claim that it was anything more than minor gamesmanship on the Celtic captain’s part is grasping at straws. Morelos is as predictable as he is overrated and just can’t help himself.

Not surprisingly thereafter Celtic continued to dominate with Allan McGregor producing a fine first-half save from a fierce effort from Tierney and then again in the second half when he kept out Sinclair – a half time substitute for the injured Hayes – after the English winger had played a wonderful one-two with Callum McGregor on the edge of the box.

Mikael Lustig then tried his luck from distance but his effort whizzed past and from that point onwards Celtic seemed to fall asleep somewhat. With our visitors on the back feet and down to ten men as well as needing a goal – or two if they genuinely harboured any real remaining ambitions to win the league –  this really was an opportunity to turn them over.

Instead, Celtic’s urgency evaporated and it looked like the cigars and brandy were out figuratively speaking.

From about the 60 minute mark onwards, Rangers came back into it and clearly sensed an opportunity. In a press conference yesterday Steven Gerrard claimed they dominated the game and were the better team for 55 mins. Absolute nonsense. The only reason they even came back into it is that we let them but still they were the better team for that final half hour.

Their best player Ryan Kent cut inside Boyata and finished well on 63 mins to put them back on an even pegging. Incidentally, Boyata had a bit of a nightmare all day and eventually limped off.

Rangers actually looked the more likely to score at that stage and Ryan Jack passed up a great chance to put them ahead when Kent cut the ball back to him from the byline but he hit it high, wide and handsome over the bar.

It was in the balance and you couldn’t help but wonder how the hell we’d got ourselves into this predicament when to our great relief that man Tavernier released a loose pass on the right flank and McGregor was onto it like a shot before releasing Edouard who set-up Forrest to slam home the winner on 86 minutes.

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Kent makes his mark.

There was one particularly hairy moment at the end – not including the fact Ryan Kent should have got a straight red for a shove to the face on Brown in the aftermath of the Forrest goal – when Ajer had to make an incredible challenge to prevent Joe Worrall from knocking the ball into an empty net after more good wing play from Kent who had tested Scott Bain with a stinging strike.

Ajer was a real lion for Celtic all day and especially in the final five minutes or so when we had to baton down the hatches. He really had to be though as Boyata was in bomb scare form all afternoon. His injury means he is probably out for the rest of the season and therefore it’s likely the last time we’ll see him in a Celtic jersey. To be honest that doesn’t really upset me. Boyata had his moments but produced too many calamitous ones for my liking and I wish him well for the future wherever he ends up.

The three points were achieved and I guess that’s what is most important but on the whole, I’m somewhat disappointed. We had a chance to really put Rangers to the sword and put Gerrard under massive pressure. Instead due to poor game management, we let their ten men back into it and now due to the circumstances, they have emerged with a moral victory of sorts. At least that’s the vibe they are giving off.

Once again it was a close one that required a late winner and I remain completely unconvinced that Neil Lennon should be our manager next season. Metting him later on that night in Tennent’s bar where he refused to get his picture taken with me and some friends – in fairness we aren’t the best-looking bunch of guys – has perhaps coloured that a little but in truth, I just think it reeks of lack of ambition and regression. Let’s not forget Hibs deemed him not good enough to remain as their manager only two months ago. And the football we’ve seen so far since his return has been enough but no more.

Of course, if he gets it – and barring a calamitous failure not to win the treble again I think it’s a stick on – I’ll support him but I don’t think anyone should be surprised if the overall quality of the product denigrates with the appointment over the next few years. As much as we loathe him now Brendan Rodgers was a consummate professional and highly thought of within the game. Lenny just isn’t on either count and there’s only so much you can claw that back with passion and commitment to the cause.

Of course, also hovering over the game is the usual nonsense talk about sectarian violence etc. There were six arrests in and around the stadium out of a crowd of just shy of 59,000. Talk about a storm in a teacup.

In the city centre, there were some battles and three Celtic fans have ended up in hospital, one of whom is in a critical condition. That’s horrendous and he has my hopes and prayers but trying to attribute that to a game taking place several miles way is stretching it.

Scottish Police Federation vice-chairman David Hamilton has waded in with nonsensical talk about how it’s worse than it’s ever been and has even said players need to improve their behaviour.  He also washes the police’s hands of it claiming they receive little back from the clubs. He forgets of course that the 59,000 or so supporters inside the stadium are all taxpayers, pay his wages and his force’s responsibility don’t stop at the doors of private property. You’re a public servant Hamilton. You’re not doing us a favour by doing your job.

Anyway, no doubt that will grow arms and legs in the coming days and weeks as the SNP once again try to force through another ludicrous behaviour bill.

In the meantime let’s take in the highly original perspective offered on events by the good people over at ‘Gers TV’. Top notch stuff:

Celtic vs Rangers or US vs THEM preview!

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I was going to make the fatal mistake of titling this ‘Old Firm preview’ but everyone is outraged by that tagline nowadays so left it out.

Anyway, tomorrow afternoon bang on noon the blue half of Glasgow visit Celtic Park.

800 or so hardy souls will make their way to the stadium at 10.30am in the morning to support them with a deadline of 11am to get into the stadium before their little corner’s doors are locked and the barriers are removed to allow the home support to move in.

It seems harsh if you think about it from the perspective of the shoe being on the other foot but this is a situation of their own making so they can’t really complain. Of course, they will and indeed have anyway but then a warped perception isn’t exactly rare amongst Rangers fans. It was the holding company that went into liquidation apparently and not the club. Must have been the club that went into administration though as they got docked points etc but hey that’s all ancient history now isn’t it?!

Anyway to the football and this is a must-win game for our visitors. With a pretty luxurious 10 point advantage at the top of the league in our favour, anything but a win for Steven Gerrard’s team means that any slim hopes of a title challenge become dying embers with only seven games left thereafter and another trophyless season beckons.

The fixture has been pretty one-sided in recent years. We’ve won ten, drawn two and only lost one of the last thirteen. Aggregate wise it’s a pretty incredible 31-7 in our favour over those13 matches. Of course, this season things have been tighter with a dominant 1-0 win earlier in the campaign at home which saw Olivier Ntcham slam home the only goal and then on December 28th Rangers claimed their solitary win in the fixture since coming back up via a 1-0 win at Ibrox. Ryan Jack scored the only goal that day in a game where Celtic were decimated by injuries that saw us lose Tom Rogic, Leigh Griffiths and Izaguirre in the build-up with Edouard and Tierney only able to make the bench meaning Mikey Johnstone was deployed up front as a lone striker and McGregor was pitched in at left-back.

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Who can forget Lustig with the police hat?

We’ll be without Ryan Christie tomorrow but on the positive note Edouard and Tierney should be raring to go and there’s even a chance Benkovic, Tom Rogic and Ntcham – who have all been out with long term injuries – may also play a part.

There’s no doubt that Rogic, Tierney and Edouard were all missed from the starting line-up last time and their inclusions tomorrow should see a totally different approach deployed though of course with Neil Lennon now in charge that would have been the case anyway

There’s also the fact they’ll be in front of 58,000 or so ravenous Celtic supporters with an opportunity to take a vital step towards an 8th consecutive league championship.

For Neil Lennon, it’s a potentially vital match in his audition for getting the reigns at Celtic Park permanently for a second time. Him getting the job is something I have mixed feelings about but that is something that can be debated another day.

His own Old Firm record is pretty impressive having managed the club in 12 fixtures during his first tenure in the hot seat and he won six of them with two draws and four losses. That was against a very different and dollar for doughnuts I’d say a much stronger Rangers side than the one he’ll face tomorrow. Lenny’s record at Celtic Park is of particular note as he has won five of six with only one loss in the tie and an aggregate of 11-4 with four clean sheets. Rangers haven’t actually won at Celtic Park since October 2010. Long may it continue.

Lennon’s record as Hibs manager against Rangers was also pretty tasty having won two, drawn three and lost only one of his six fixtures in charge against the light blues.

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Neil Lennon enjoyed Hibs games against Rangers.

There’s no doubt he gets his teams up for these matches – I can’t imagine why – though so far under his second tenure I have been a bit underwhelmed by our play. Three wins and a draw isn’t to be sniffed at but we’ve needed goals at the death to win two of them and were particularly underwhelming against basement dwellers Dundee last time out on St.Patrick’s Day.

Rangers will come to sit in and play on the break with their big hope being Morelos. He is their greatest threat but also their greatest liability and in the white-hot heat of a partisan Old Firm (don’t crucify me) atmosphere, he could easily crack. If the Celtic defenders are cute enough with him there’s always a chance he’ll sabotage himself.

For me, though it’s all about the Celtic and what we do and player for player we are superior especially with an almost full catchment to choose from so I’m hoping for a quick and powerful start and obviously an early goal. I expect it to be tight though and we’ll need to be patient.  Under Brendan, if it’s okay to even mention his name again yet, I was pretty confident of not only winning almost every time we played them but of posting a big score and we often did ie: 5-1, 5-1 4-0 and 5-0. Recent encounters and events off the pitch though have rained in those expectations but there’s always hope that we can give them a doing.

My prediction…….2-0.

My hope………..10-0!

St. Paddy’s Day preview and what did I miss?

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Just back from a holiday in a far-flung place with poor internet connection where you could forget trying to upload blog updates.

Of course, there was still enough bandwidth to stay abreast of results so after Hibs picked up a surprise 1-1 draw with Rangers a week ago yesterday after being a goal down for most of the match it was pretty disappointing to see us fail to take advantage and extend our lead at the top to a more or less unassailable 10 points.

Aberdeen have been in pretty sensational away form all season and have also been tough opponents for us every time we’ve faced them this term but having won three from three against them as well as having won every home domestic game this season it was a bit of a shock to see it end 0-0.

I’ll also admit I was pretty frustrated at this ongoing nonsense of playing Oli Burke up front as a lone striker when he’s clearly a winger whilst two recognised strikers in record signing Odsonne Edouard and PSG-loanee Timothy Weah languish on the bench. This started under Brendan Rodgers and has continued under Neil Lennon and it continues to mystify me. If Burke was scoring goals for fun then fair enough but he isn’t and has proven far more adept playing in his preferred wing role and setting up strikers for goals.

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Lenny got the team selection wrong. 

I also wasn’t too impressed with the ‘mental fatigue’ excuse which Lenny came out with during the post-match interviews. The players had a weeks rest and if they are mentally fatigued in mid-March then that doesn’t bode well for a title run in and our efforts to capture an unprecedented treble-treble.

Just accept you should have started with a recognised striker, don’t make the same mistake again and we’ll move on.

As for this weekend we, of course, visit Dundee on St.Paddy’s day. As I actually write this our nearest title challengers are currently losing 1-0 at half time at home against Kilmarnock. Of course, if things stay that way then we can potentially put ourselves in a dream position going into the next Old Firm game on March 30th. It’s already a must win game for our opponents given the current points deficit and the fact that they were eliminated once again from a cup competition by Aberdeen through the week. But it will be a potential ground zero scenario if they fall further behind and we can go 14 points clear if we beat them which with only seven games left which makes it increasingly likely we can win the title against them at Ibrox, something which the authorities will be desperate to avoid.

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Reality bites for Stevie G as the honeymoon period with the press ends.

For the first time, Gerrard is under the microscope as it has become apparent that his team generally blow the big games and that most of his personnel changes have been duds. Eros Grezda anyone?

Anyway, there is still 45 mins of football to play over there and the referee Greg Aitken will most likely be getting an itchy trigger finger soon as the game draws to a conclusion.

We should win at Dens Park tomorrow but Dundee will be throwing everything at it as they fight tooth and nail to stay up and we are not the same team without Christie and McGregor who remain sidelined along with a raft of other impact players. Hopefully, Lenny sees some sense, puts a striker on and we go out and do the business making it a happy St.Paddy’s day in the process.

Below is one of my fondest memories from the Patron Saint of Eire’s day back in the day.

The infamous and glorious ‘St.Patrick’s Day Massacre’ of 1991.

Enjoy:

Post-Old Firm perspective and the transfer window.

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I never got an opportunity to write an analysis of the Old Firm match which was a week ago on Saturday. To be honest there wasn’t much to say. I wrote in my preview that if we turned up then I believed we’d win. We didn’t and Rangers were clearly in fighting mood and contested vigorously every 50/50 and created far more and better chances. They deserved their victory.

We badly missed Tom Rogic and benching both Kieran Tierney and Odsonne Edouard was a strange call especially as it led to Callum McGregor playing at left-back which was quite frankly bizarre and young Mikey Johnstone was effectively thrown to the wolves being played up front on his own.

On the whole, Craig Gordon kept us in it with some excellent saves and he was one of our few players who deserved pass marks especially in the first 45 mins. In the second half, McGregor was pushed forward into his more natural position which helped greatly though at his side was Scott Brown and Olivier Ntcham both of whom struggled throughout.

First-half injuries to Mikel Lustig and Stefan Benkovic pretty much confirmed that sneaky feeling that it wasn’t to be our day.

That was reinforced by referee John Beaton’s anomalous decision to ignore three definite yellow and potential red card calls on Alfredo Morelos fouls as well as a Callum McGregor’s second-half goal being chopped off for being marginally offside.

The fallout since has been significant with Beaton unsurprisingly coming under intense scrutiny for his lack of action against the Colombian striker with his decision to go out boozing on the very night of the game in the Crown Bar in Bellshill where he happily posed for pictures with delighted local punters not helping his cause.

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Good night John?

Just about everyone and their dog believed there would be some form of retrospective action against Morelos but apparently, it’s at the referee’s own discretion if he wants to reassess his original conclusion and low and behold Beaton still believes he was spot on.

Yeah, I’ll bet you do John.

Anyway since then some moronic Celtic fan put Beaton’s number out on social media and he has been subsequently inundated with friendly requests from other Celtic fans wishing to meet and greet him in person or words to that effect.

In no way can this be condoned and whoever it is who has threatened him should be publicly outed and banned from any involvement with the club for life as they are clearly not of sound mind nevermind intent.

Though it has been amusing seeing some elements of the Rangers support expressing their moral outrage online with the irony of the fact their own fanbase launched an online petition against the SFA back in August 2017 in the wake of what they felt was inherent anti-Rangers bias after John Beaton himself had sent off Ryan Jack during their 3-2 home defeat by Hibernian.

There was also the small issue a few years back of some of their fans sending parcel bombs to the then Celtic manager Neil Lennon as well as players Niall McGinn and Paddy McCourt and even a few known Celtic supporting MSPs but hey………….short memories.

All that aside both Celtic and Rangers are now neck and neck at the summit of the Premiership table on 42 points with Celtic leading due to a superior goal difference and we also have a game in hand.

Both clubs return to domestic action the weekend after next in the Scottish Cup but the league action starts up again two weeks on Wednesday and we’re at home against lowly St. Mirren with Rangers visiting third-placed Kilmarnock. The weekend after that we entertain third bottom Hamilton Accies whilst Rangers visit Livingston at a ground where they have already lost this season against a team with the third-best home record in the division. We then play our game in hand at home against St.Johnstone the following Wednesday.

So there’s a pretty strong chance that come early February we could have a decent points advantage over them all things going well.

Until then we must content ourselves with non-stop transfer innuendo as every club in the Scottish top flight and indeed many in the lower divisions try to rebuild, reassemble or reinforce in preparation for the second half of the season.

Thus far we’ve added Scotland internationalist winger Oliver Burke or ‘Super Olly’ as I’m hoping we come to know him by. However, the signing has been met with lashings of pessimism in some quarters amongst our own support and whilst it’s true the kid failed to make much impact down at West Bromwich Albion it wasn’t so long ago he was tearing it up in the Championship with Nottingham Forest which led to Red Bull Leipzig parting with ÂŁ13 million for his services. After a year and 25 appearances in the Bundesliga, he returned to the UK via a ÂŁ15 million move to WBA. He’s 21, 6’2 with 80 first team appearances under his belt – 40 of which have been in either the Bundesliga or English Premiership, eight goals and five Scotland caps. That’s pedigree.

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Olly Burke in the thick of it in Dubai.

I expect his pace and power will do well up here and I’m actually pretty excited about the signing. He can play on both sides with the right wing being his preferred domain and at the very least it should see both James Forrest and Scott Sinclair upping their games.

Also on the cards are precocious 18-year-old PSG striker Timothy Weah on an apparent 18 months loan as well as 23-year-old Ivorian striker Vakoun Issouf Bayo in a ÂŁ2million move from Slovakian side Dunajska Streda where he has hit 18 goals in 23 games and provided seven assists going by my always on-point online research.

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Bayo scores. Hopefully, he’s doing this for us very soon.

Both will hopefully be wrapped up in the next few days barring any last minute shenanigans ie: the sort of nonsense that harpooned our apparently inevitable move to sign John McGinn back in the summer.

Weah is, of course, the son of the legendary George who’s skill and talent I could rave about all night having been lucky enough to see him star on ITV in UEFA Cup matches for PSG and in Serie A for AC Milan on Channel 4 back in the ’90s.

He has little to no first team experience but has just signed a new contract with the Parisian aristocrats so is clearly highly rated and a similar move for Edouard last season worked out pretty well so fingers crossed he can make the same impact.

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“If he’s even half the player his father was……………”

Bayo is also an unknown quantity having plied his trade in his native Ivory Coast and now in Slovakia and even with such impressive stats you always wonder if he’ll be the next Moussa Dembele or the ghost of Mohammed Bangura come back to haunt us again. Whos’ to say but hopefully, on this occasion, the scouting network have found a gem on par with Wanyama or Van Dijk as opposed to duds like Teemu Pukki or Derk Boerrigter.

Meanwhile over at Castle Greyskull Rangers have also pushed the boat out by bringing in the pairing of Southampton’s Steven Davis and Bournemouth’s Jermain Defoe both on loans. Neither has had much game time this season and they have a collective age of 70 and I can’t help but remember how we were lampooned back in the day when we brought in the likes of Ian Wright, Carlton Cole and Freddie Ljungberg at the midway points of our seasons with all three faded veterans failing to make any kind of impact but hey-ho. Stevie G knows best.

They’ve also tied up Jordan Jones and Glen Kamara on pre-contracts apparently being unselfish enough not to prize them from their respective clubs with transfer fees right now and preferring to allow them to see out their current commitments. Aye. Right.

Motherwell have also been able to secure the services of Ross McCormack which could prove the move of the window or might make no difference at all to their struggling season.

Oran Keaney is also attempting to undo the work done by his predecessor Alan Stubbs in the summer at St.Mirren by more or less releasing a whole team’s worth of players pretty much all of whom were brought in by Stubbs.

It’s only the 7th of January and there’s a long way to go in the window. And let’s not forget it’s also a time when players can be sold or released too. Personally, I’m hoping we part company with the likes of Cristian Gamboa, Nir Bitton, Scott Allen and the ultimate wage thief Marvin Compper who has done precisely nothing since his arrival at the club exactly a year ago outside of collecting the empty water bottles at the end of training.

We don’t have to sell though so don’t expect to see any of our assets leaving. Elsewhere though it might be a different story. So watch this space.

A wee preview of Bayo below and I’m hoping we actually see him the Hoops now or it’ll be more transfer window egg on our faces and calls for perennial panto villain Peter Lawwell’s head. Apologies about the music in advance.

Oh, and I hope you had a Happy New Year. I know I did. Though not as good as John Beaton’s.