Well that was a very successful tour of America, I hate to say it, but it reminded me of the tour of North America in 1966, and we all know what was achieved that season. I was talking to “The Brush” John Clark at the Funeral of Rosemary, John said they were away for five weeks, we had seventeen players there, we would have had more backroom personnel there this time around. Celtic played eleven matches winning eight and drawing three, three of the games were against Tottenham Hotspur. I think we scored forty-seven goals and conceded six.
This tour was very similar, although we only played three games in a week, we scored twelve and conceded four. It was the quality of the opposition that impressed me, with all due respect to DC United, the 4-0 result was expected, but to score four goals against Manchester City and Chelsea was a big bonus, but not just the goals scored, it was the performances and work-rate that impressed, and against two teams who will certainly contest the Title in England this coming season.
I think I’ve said already, I would love to keep Matt O’Riley, I would push the boat out to get him to commit to another go at the Champions League, even getting Matt to stay until January would be a bonus, one thing we can’t allow to happen, would be for him to leave on the last day of the window with no time to replace him, it’s great having money in the bank, but it’s a good team sheet that wins trophies, not a good balance sheet, so there should be a cut-off date for Matt being allowed to leave, that’s if he wants to go, I know his agent will want him to go, money matters to them, not trophies.
It’s brilliant reading online all the Sevco players and manager talking about going for the treble, the mad supporters are just as bad. Should someone over Govan way not be telling them to do their talking on the park. Look at their short history, they have won three major trophies since 2012, Celtic have won twenty-six, twelve League Titles, seven Scottish Cups, and seven League Cups. A dominance of Scottish Football that looks certain to continue, and that’s because we have the right people in the right positions to manage our Magnificent Club, and we have the support to back it up.
Next Sunday we go again, we can approach the new season with great confidence, but we won’t win anything without hard work, nobody is going to hand us the Title, so make sure we are all in it together, 100%. I read that Willie Collum is talking about Referees being mic’d up during games, that can only be a good thing for us, it means when they are cheating us, they need to confirm it over the tannoy, they have always found a way to cheat us, hopefully this helps.
Glasgow’s still Green & White.