Celtic

Better safe than sorry – Calmac staying off the plastic probably for the best

Published

8 months ago

March 30, 2024

Despite earlier reports to the contrary, Callum McGregor won’t take any part in tomorrow’s clash at Livingston. The skipper has been out since the 7-1 win over Dundee and was expected to be back after the international break.

But Brendan Rodgers yesterday revealed the Celtic captain won’t be available for tomorrow, although he will be back in training next week and has more than a good chance of facing theRangers at Ibrox. Given the nature of Callum’s injury, the Celtic manager has made the decision not to risk his skipper who will clearly be needed at Ibrox a week tomorrow where no Celtic supporters will be there to back the team.

This decision could turn out to be a blessing in disguise as being thrown back into action especially on the horrendous Livingston surface could have been a bit risky. Especially with a trip to Ibrox the next stop. A week of training will do Callum the world of good, and he should be fit and raring to go for the high noon clash at Ibrox. I’d be very surprised if he didn’t start that game.

Yes Callum has lacked match practice in the past few weeks, but he’s played plenty of football over the past year or so for both club and country, so perhaps this little break will have done him the world of good?

He’s a player I would have no hesitation in starting at Ibrox if even 80 per cent fit. He’s that important to this Celtic side. And with just about everyone else fit, with just Yang and Luis Palma on the sidelines but expected back shortly, Brendan Rodgers has made the sensible call in keeping Calmac for Ibrox next week. These are the big decisions he’s paid to make and I reckon he’s got this one spot on.

Just an Ordinary Bhoy

Regarding Brendan Rodgers’ Touchline Ban, Joe Hart

Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart has commented on manager Brendan Rodgers’ touchline ban, admitting that he and his teammates ideally would have wanted the gaffer in the dugout this weekend.

The Hoops travel to Livingston in the Scottish Premiership as the business end of the season begins.

As a result of his comments after his team’s defeat to Hearts a few weeks ago, Rodgers was given a one-match touchline ban with another suspended and will be in the stands for the game.

Hart admitted that although the situation is not great, the players will carry on. “You want your leader, you want your manager available but sometimes you have situations like this”, he said (Celtic FC on YouTube).

7th February 2024; Easter Road, Edinburgh, Scotland: Scottish Premiership Football, Hibernian versus Celtic; Joe Hart of Celtic pats the Celtic badge on his chest after the win

“He’s had more than long enough to put his message across of what he needs and what he wants from us.

“There’s no doubt we want Brendan in the dugout with us but rules say that he’s not there so look, he’s going to do everything he possibly can to help us and that’s no different.”

John Kennedy will be the figurehead in the dugout for Celtic this Sunday. Although it is not the best that Rodgers is in the stands, it shouldn’t have too great of an impact on the players.

Mark Wilson likened the manager being absent to when a class gets a substitute teacher in a school and if that is what it will be like for Celtic this weekend, let’s hope there are no disruptions to the lesson.

Mikael Lustig, a former Celtic legend, enters coaching

Former Celtic players get up to all sorts of activities following their retirement from the game as they move on to new pastures.

Coaching or punditry are the two most popular avenues; however, there are also rare anomalies that choose something completely different to fill the time.

Anyone with a working knowledge of Scottish football punditry will know who the main suspects are that have gone into that field, with Chris Sutton, Neil Lennon, Stiliyan Petrov, John Hartson and Mark Wilson some of the prominent voices heard on our televisions and radios.

Of course, Brendan Rodgers’ right-hand man John Kennedy, B team duo Stephen McManus and Darren O’Dea, former club captain Scott Brown and Shaun Maloney have all made a name for themselves in coaching capacities since retiring, imparting their experience and wisdom gleaned at Parkhead.

Either way, just because you hang the boots up or choose to leave Celtic, it doesn’t mean you can’t still influence the game we all love.

Now, another Hoops favourite has now completed the transition to a coaching role with a top-flight outfit.

Former Celtic icon Mikael Lustig lands coaching position

Mikael Lustig was an iconic figure at Parkhead and has now managed to land a role coaching in the academy of Allsvenskan outfit Västerås Sportklubb, who will feature in the Swedish top-flight this season after several seasons in the lower leagues.

The 37-year-old has completed his DBA Elite Uefa B/A course for ex-players and had previously been helping the club in a less formal capacity.

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Västerås academy director Gustav Høgmo Utstøl welcomed Lustig on board, stating: “It is an honour that Mikael is with us, he brings a lot of experience to our players and leaders. Above all, he is a person who really lives and promotes our values and strengthens our culture.” (Translated via Deep L).

Lustig earned cult hero status at Parkhead due to his solidity on the right-hand side of defence and his colourful personality, registering 21 goals and 40 assists in 276 appearances for Celtic [Transfermarkt].

Best of luck to the former Sweden international in his new role, and hopefully he can enjoy a successful career in coaching.

Celtic trail Hibs in transfer age rundown as Premiership clubs ranked

What’s that old cliché again? “You don’t win anything with kids”…

It’s all about striking the right balance for Scottish Premiership managers with experience the key so long as it does come with some youthful exuberance and enthusiasm. As well as pushing as high up in the division as possible every season with a mixed squad, there’s also the small factor of signing younger players in a bid to benefit from the sell-on value with plenty of examples in Scotland’s top flight over the years.

When considering those prospects in their incomings from different transfer windows, it’s Hibs that leads the line on the new data provided by stats site CIES Football Observatory with an average age of 23.26 over the last five years.

Champions Celtic – who have been accused of signing project players more often than not – are next on the list with their average age at 23.53 with Rangers next in line just slightly behind the Hoops on 23.60.

Ross County (23.94), Aberdeen (24.31), Hearts (24.56) and Kilmarnock (24.92) are next on the list while they’re then followed by St Johnstone (24.95), Dundee (25.04), Motherwell (25.13) and St Mirren (25.20) with rock-bottom Livingston (25.71) rounding off the list.

‘Far From IT,’ Celtic Hero Fires Title Warning

JOE LEDLEY knows what it takes to be a derby winner during his three-and-a-half years at Celtic.

The gifted midfielder thumped a memorable header into the Rangers net to warm up a bitterly cold December evening at Parkhead back in 2011 to fire the Hoops towards the title.

It was a crucial strike and the Welsh international displayed true grit as he threw himself at a right-wing corner-kick delivery in the midst of chaos and flying bodies in a packed penalty area.

Victor Wanyama just missed the cross, but Ledley made no mistake as he rose to power an effort into the roof of the net that went a long way to Neil Lennon’s team’s subsequent championship triumph.

HEADS I WIN…Joe Ledley gets in behind Victor Wanyama and in front of Giorgios Samaras to thump in the derby winner in the 1-0 triumph at Parkhead in December 2011.

The former Hoops hero, who signed on a free transfer from Cardiff City in July 2010 before moving on in an £800,000 switch to Crystal Palace, has been keeping a close eye on developments at his old club throughout a topsy-turvy campaign.

Brendan Rodgers’ men are a point ahead with eight games to play while their nearest challengers from Ibrox have a match in hand.

The drama continues at the weekend with Philippe Clement’s side at home to Hibs on Saturday afternoon while the champions travel to West Lothian to take on Livingston 24 hours later.

Celtic have won both derby confrontations this term with Kyogo Furuhashi firing in breathtaking clinchers on both occasions, but the side have faltered with two defeats to Hearts and a loss to Kilmarnock to shed unexpected points.

WALLOP…Kyogo Furuhashi flashes in the only goal of the game as Celtic triumph at Ibrox in September.

There have also been draws with St Johnstone, Hibs, Motherwell, Aberdeen and the Rugby Park outfit which have placed Scotland’s title kings, bidding for their twelfth crown in 13 years, on a precarious tightrope.

Rodgers’ men will play their third all-Glasgow affair in Govan a week on Sunday with another match to be arranged in the east end of Glasgow after the split.

Ledley said: “It is very tight and, of course, the games between the two teams look as if they are going to be deciding games that dictate who comes out on top.

“But I have seen a few times this season that Celtic and Rangers have slipped up in games where you felt they would have won and they didn’t. Getting that win against your rivals in the last two games in the league is vital.

“But, as I said, we’ve seen it numerous times this season that there have been slips just when you do not expect it.”

GETTING IT IN THE NECK…Joe Ledley in an Old Firm confrontation with Steven Naismith, current Hearts boss.

The one-time fans’ favourite, speaking to the Daily Record, added: “If Celtic get that win against Rangers, you can’t think that’s it and the game is over.

“It’s not. Far from it.

“A draw somewhere and that is two points of the three points gained gone and it is all back on again.

“Goal difference is tight, points are tight, it is going to be one of the tightest finishes in a long time.”

Cumbernauld No.1 CSC – Willie Haughey, a live lobster and the body in the hearse

Founded in the 1979/80 season, after the demise of the notorious St Joseph’s 9 in a Row CSC, by Jackie Stewart, Pat Dunese, Jim Meechan, and Eddie Campbell. The only way to join the club was through an application process. The bus had and still has a strictly no alcohol policy on board, which was a contrast to the party-hard St Joseph’s bus.

They originally left from the Maltings Bar in Abronhill and picked up at Cumbernauld Town Centre. However, after a few years, the committee made the decision to leave Moriarty’s Bar and travel to The Tavern in Tollcross.

Moriarty’s sponsored the bus with a large banner that had both the club’s name and the name of the bar on it. The money that the bar made from the bus was kept in a separate account, and in return, at the end of the season, members of the club were given free drinks.

They have always been involved in generous charity work over the last 40 years, from bus dances to individual fundraisers. The club always gives one-time donations as well as a monthly donation to the local food bank. Another example of the generosity of their members was when they raised enough money to provide one of their members’ brother-in-law’s supportive mobility chair to help aid his lifestyle.

Over the years, their club has evolved into a social group, not just for travelling to see Celtic but for regular nights out. They also have a strong sense of community, with active members from Cumbernauld all the way to America and Gibraltar, and many non-members travelling with them regularly to games.

With the ongoing scarcity of away tickets, the bus has forged a friendship with Neilson CSC to share the cost of travelling to away games. In 1995, they had a dinner dance at the Knights of Columba in Moodiesburn, and one of the committee members, Stevie Brown, was stepping down from his role on the bus as chairman.

At this dance, their guest of honour was Willie Haughey. Their chairman for that season was Sam Chalmers, and he had written a lengthy speech to prepare. He was a nervous wreck, as this was his first dance as chairman. Minutes before Sam’s speech, Willie asked if he could read over Sam’s words to ‘help him out’ and let him know what he thought of them.

To Sam’s horror, Willie then proceeded to rip the speech up right in front of him. As the colour drained from Sam’s face, Willie, clearly unprepared himself, then retorted ‘That’s us both screwed now; we’ll just need to wing it.’ This was Sam’s first and last year as chairman of the committee.

Stories from their many European trips start with their Porto trip, when, after a lengthy day of drinking, they discovered a hearse parked outside the pub. One of their members, Thomas Butler, decided to crawl into the back and pretend he was dead, with many locals passing by looking inside mournfully. However, they were absolutely horrified when he sat upright, still alive, and gave them a fright.

Additionally, when they travelled to Stuttgart, they acquired a ceramic duck from one of the pubs that they were drinking in, which then became the mascot for their bus for many years. This became a tradition among their members to acquire souvenirs from pubs and restaurants they visited. Another time, when members were sitting in a restaurant in Lyon, there was a display with fish nets and plastic lobsters above a lobster tank. They decided to take one of the plastic lobsters as a souvenir; however, one of their younger members, Raymond Boland, misunderstood the instructions and, when he got outside, opened his jacket and asked, ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ He had taken a live lobster from the tank instead.

The current committee consists of some of the original older members along with their new younger members, which consist of Brain Crampshee, Kevin Malarkey, Jake Milton, Declan Reid, and Jordan Trindade. They are now at the stage where the original members’ families are now in a position to take over the bus and the responsibilities, hopefully being able to pass them on to the generations to come.

An extract from Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs by David McIntyre ( Celtic Bars). Football Without Fans – The History of Celtic Supporters Clubs is out now and available in print and kindle versions HERE.

More from Football Without Fans tomorrow on The Celtic Star, the Celtic supporters website. Will it be your CSC that’s featured?