Cabin fever ends Cup Fever begins

After what seems like a 17 month absence Celtic take the field of play this weekend. The game v Albion Rovers in the Scottish Cup should hopefully provide the players with the opportunity to ease back into competitive football after their mid season break. Do not think I am totally writing the Rovers off,I don’t want to be disrespectful and  I remember games v Clyde and ICT, but I think this Celtic team will have enough in the tank to get a positive result. It has obviously been lovely for the players to rest up, go to Dubai and return to training in Scotland with time to allow knocks and niggles to heal. the team will have bonded and the coaching staff will have been able to work on things that were not possible when we had a game every third or fourth day.For followers of the Hoops it has been a form of mid Winter torture.it has been a form of cabin fever waiting for the Hoops to play but thankfully it is now upon us.

I love the Scottish Cup and when I was in Scotland I used to try to get to every game in the Cup. I loved the away games to play at parks I had never been to and loved the cracking atmospheres that small grounds can produce.Hopefully we can go all the way to the final and win and give Brendan and the bhoys the ideal end to the season. A solid performance this weekend should start us on our way.

I thought there would have been more movement for some of our players but with eleven days of the window to go there may be plenty of time for players to get an opportunity for regular football by moving on. I had thought it would have given us an opportunity to free some money up by reducing the wage bill and I am surprised that no one has come in for Efe and Nadir Ciftci who appear well out of the picture at Celtic Park.

Good luck to Kris Ajer at Killie- he will need it. I hope the big lad goes down there and cements a place in their starting eleven with a view to returning a better, more rounded player.

Apologies for no blogs this week, I have been a wee bit wrapped up with my annual visit to the tennis in Melbourne and did not have time to get anything written.I tried to get something really witty about football and tennis but Google let me down so I have this instead…Who is it??

Who is this ghuy??

I have had a wee chuckle at some of the transfer stories this week. It is evident to me that we will eventually lose KT to a top, top European giant if he continues his current trajectory, injuries not withstanding. KT is a Celtic fan and will not be in a rush to leave but we cannot prevent teams looking at him covetously. Celtic will not be inviting unwanted bids for any of our players if we have them locked into decent contracts but speculation will abound. English teams will look at some of the players who have moved down South recently and will be thinking there is value for money to be had by buying Celtic players…I give you Virgil, Victor and Fraser as examples.

I suppose we don’t need the money but I do understand that some smaller, less well off clubs will be keen to sell ANY marketable product they have and it does appear to me that some players have got better and better as the Winter break has went on and cash flow is restricted ……….

That is Rafa