Massive fixture disparity. If Jota goes, bring in better.

[Joe O'Rourke]

I contacted Neil Doncaster this morning regarding the disparity in the home/away fixtures for the first quarter of the SPL season. As I said in my email, it is obvious that we will be playing at least four of the five teams who will finish in the top six away from home first, and obviously the so-called establishment team will be playing them all at home.

Surely that must create an unfair advantage, I still believe we will win the League, but in a wider aspect, it gives Sevco the chance to bed in new players against their closest rivals at home, so they will be three months into the season before they play any of the bigger teams away from home, only in Scotland is everything skewed to suit one team, and they still won Nothing !!!!!

Dear Neil,
I hope you are well. I am writing to ask you for some information regarding the fixtures for the SPL for the upcoming season. I have always thought that the fixtures were decided by a computer, but surely that cannot be the case, as there seems to be a massive difference in the away matches’ Celtic play in the first quarter of the season, and the away matches scheduled for Rangers to play.
I think if you ask any supporter who goes to SPL matches who the top six will be at the the split after 33 matches. My money would be on Celtic, Rangers, Aberdeen, Hearts, Hibs, and probably Motherwell. So I find it really strange that Celtic play all the other five teams away from home in the first quarter of the season, with Rangers playing all the five teams at home in the first quarter. I would think that is a massive advantage to Rangers, to get to play their supposed closest challengers at home first.
Now if what I assume comes to be true in the top six, it would mean Celtic had already played the other five team away from home twice, and Rangers would have played them all at home twice. Just exactly how would that effect the final round of five matches? I also note that, between September 23rd and October 28th, Celtic play five games, four of them away from home. Why is it not like it used to be, Home, away, home, away? I realise that matches being televised can change things, but surely not to that extent?
Kind regards,
Joe O’Rourke,
General Secretary,
Celtic Supporters Association.

The major news for us Celtic Supporters, is the prospect of us losing one of our best players to the football backyard of Saudi Arabia, but that’s football and money. We have already seen with the hosting of the World Cup in Qatar that money talks, and the more money you have, the Louder you become.

If the numbers being quoted are correct, then I can’t blame Jota for getting his head turned, I think if anyone was offered ten times their salary they would jump at it, you only have to look back to KT going to Arsenal, he was, and still is a massive Celtic Supporter, but he was offered money that Celtic cannot match, we need to hope we don’t lose any more, but it would not surprise me if we did.

Technically Jota is under contract, so Celtic can so “No Thanks” but you then have an unhappy player, far better to let the Bhoy go, and invest the money in replacing him with a better player, if possible, we have already brought in Marco Tilio, who could be a straight replacement for Jota. What we must strive to do is go into the new season with a better and stronger squad than last season’s “Treble Winners” no easy task, but I think we are well equipped in the recruitment department to make that happen.

So for the next couple of months we will be scrutinising the internet every day for news of payer movement at Celtic, I expect a few players to move on as well as Jota, and I must say, I was very sorry to hear that Aaron Mooy had decided to retire, not as good as Lubo, but mad a great contribution to winning the treble, and I wish him good luck in whatever he does.