Regular readers will know that it’s my avowed policy to spare myself the horror of listening to Radio Clyde, and that I rely on others, like my good friend Paddy Sinat over on Vital Celtic, to bring back any juicy gossip and highlight it. Those guys go above and beyond the call of duty. Today, it’s the turn of Football Scotland to clue me in to the chatter.
I don’t know if the guy who phoned in to suggest Ryan Porteous to Celtic or not really is one of our fans, or simply an Ibrox supporter at the wind-up – I would bet on the latter more than the former but couldn’t be sure either way – but I do know that his point made no sense.
He wants us to sign him before they do? Really? I wrote an article about this the other day and I think most Celtic fans agree with the sentiment in it; let them have him. If this is the limit of their imagination and vision and ambition in the transfer market then we have no worries at all. Since then the media has been briefed that they aren’t interested anyway.
Mark Wilson, on the show, shot the suggestion down. I’m glad he did. Although he did point to two cases in the past where something like that might have happened; Kris Commons and Scott Allan. We all know about the Allan case. That was one of the most ridiculous transfer deals in the recent history of our club. Someone (not the manager) deciding to buy the guy for what looked, to me, like no other reason than denying him to Ibrox.
We can all guess who that someone was. A meaningless stunt like that was just like him. Deny the manager funds for the players he really wanted, and splurge on somebody just to annoy people across town. Thank God we don’t have people like that at Celtic anymore, right?
Commons, I had no memory of being linked with the Ibrox club but we certainly didn’t sign him to spite them. He had a good goal-scoring record from midfield and he was in the team almost at once. What people forget is how close he came to scoring 100 goals for us; his denial of that place in the pantheon of Celtic legends was punishment for the disrespect he showed Ronny Deila. Check it out; Brendan Rodgers never gave him one minute of game time.
Wilson is right. We’re just not that club anymore. Ange would never sanction a signing just to prevent another club getting a player, and especially not one that he had no intention of utilising. Porteous would not get into our team, and that’s reason enough not to bother.
Porteous is a diver, a cheat and a ned: in other words a perfect fit for the huns, who if anything will up the ante on cheating etc under Fink the Bealer.
James sevco are not our rivals FACT. They are a small insignificant new club/team of no relevance just let them die in there poison and filth like the first scum vermin out of the auld hoor of edmiston drive
James, I remember two things from the time of Scott Allan’s signing; you having a good gloat over Celtic getting it right up The Rangers by meeting Hibs’ valuation and denying them a player who grew up supporting Them and the theory (possibly also from you) that he was signed not to strengthen Celtic but to weaken Hibs, thus helping The Rangers win the Championship title, get into the SPL and bring back the O*d F**m (money, money, money!!). I thought the latter an outlandish idea at the time but events since have made that idea seem more and more plausible.