To Infinity and Beyond

Yeah I’m just back from an outing at the cinema to see Toy Story 3, hence the title of todays (Monday) blog. Just like Buzz Lightyear this catchphrase could quite easily relate to our ginger leader as he takes us on a quest into the unknown with a cast of debutantes, a journey that begins in earnest on this Wednesday evening coming against Sporting Braga of Portugal.

Anyway it’s good to be here on time this week. After last weeks daily rapping of the knuckles and chastising I received from our webmaster over the information highway, there was no way I could or would knock everything out of sync two weeks in a row. You guys have no idea the deadlines we have to work to, the hours of sweat involved, the terror you feel as the shadow of the man with the anal fissure hangs over you. He’s grumpy and he’s gawna tweet you...mibbe...

It feels as if nothing much has happened over the last six days when in fact another couple of players have reportedly come in through ‘Parkhead’s Gates’ with one being that of Gary Hooper being finalised today, plus we’ve also had another two pre-season warm-up games. I didn’t see the match against Sporting Lisbon in Fenway Park as I was working nightshift the night in question and I have had mixed reports on the performance, varying depending on how much alcohol had been consumed is my guess. The Fenway Cup was secured after a 6 v 5 victory on penalty kicks which is nothing short of a minor miracle. Alongside Samaras’s penalty kick in the 1 v 1 scoreline that now makes 9 penalties taken and converted on American soil. It must be some thing to do with the air there or something or maybe its one of those pesky World Cup balls that move and turn like a snake striking out at high speed...apparently. When will we ever have a major football tournament where they will just make a round ball that goes straight, its not as if players could be bending the ball now is it. Just while we’re talking about the Hype Cup I’m absolutely delighted to hear that Celtic have already stopped selling vuvuzelas and will, I’m hearing, in fact stop anyone from bringing them into Celtic Park. This I’m happy about but how do they stop a kid from taking one in now on a match-day after he bought it in the shop last week in good faith. Indeed the advert was all about bringing them to the park and creating the “South African atmosphere that had proven so popular with the fans” . As usual another mess that could have been easily avoided if a bit of common sense had been shown in the first place and the powers that be were not so desperate to just make a quick buck from anything that hits popular culture for 2mins. Look out for Jedward releasing a bee-bob-a-loo-la version of The Fields of Athenrye in the coming weeks and performing it pitch-side on opening day.

The Bhoys returned to the UK mainland to square up against the evil genius’s Lincoln City on Saturday afternoon, in a game that we would eventually run out 4 v 1 winners in. Goals came from Murphy on his debut (which is always nice), two from Hutchinson who I hear has been on a round the world cruise with Shaun Maloney and the fourth goal from the boot of Simon Ferry who in all likelihood has played his last game in the hoops. Ferry and Paul Caddis are subject to interest from Swindon Town and would probably be best off moving to help further their own careers. Good luck bhoys. Again the match against Chris Sutton’s side was something I never got the chance to see as I was in Dublin on a prior engagement, but from what I hear it was a second string side that was fielded. I found this to be very strange as with the European Champions League qualifier coming up this week I though Lennon would have given us as close to the midweeks starting line-up as possible. The team in all the games has changed dramatically over the course of the North American tour, as it should in these games. Let’s not forget these matches are only about breaking them back in to the swing of things while being able to play slightly competitive games and try to entertain the fans while the pressure is off. Some players proved they thrive in a no pressure situation, just another reason they should be shown the door but I’ve kicked that story to death to be fair so we’ll leave it at that. I just hope Lenny doesn’t regret not having a more settled side familiarising themselves with each other again and for the first time in the Lincoln City game at the very least. Still in Lenny we trust I’m sure it will be alright on the night.

Braga will be a tough enough game to come through and if I’m honest, while a wee run in Europe is desirable, especially for the finances, I’m more interested in winning the SPL title back this season and everything else is a side show. I’d agree with Gary who wrote in his blog last week that the League Cup should just be competed for by the young team and fringe players, all the way to lifting it if need be. I think this would even stir up some interest for the fans if we stated at the outset that the young guns were going to fight this particular battle for us. God only knows its a competition that is in terrible need of something to liven it up and this may be it. It would also give some of the players who have no chance of making the first team in the near future a taste of playing at the higher level in front of decent size crowds which surely can only be a good thing.

Again I’ll miss the game as I’m working backshift this time unfortunately although I might manage to catch the second half or last half hour at least. Has this game come to quickly for Lennon or is this the game that he shows David James and a few others that Celtic Football Club should be serious contenders for his and their signatures. The reason I mention it is that I just can’t shift the gut feeling I have that a few of the ‘bigger name’ signings might just be hanging off to see how well we do in Europe initially.

This game on Wednesday might just be bigger than any of us realise bhoys and ghirls.

Harper