Good workout in Washington. More players will come in. Farewell Rosemary.

[Joe O'Rourke]

That looked like a decent workout for the team versus DC United on Saturday night in Washington, USA, any 4-0 victory away from home is a good victory. It was a good opportunity for our supporters in North America to see Celtic play in the flesh, I was at the last tour and the supporters loved it, the next two games will be a bigger test for our players, so hopefully we get a good display and result, and most importantly, no injuries.

I know some supporters are looking for more signing, and looking for them now, but the important thing is, we get the right players in, who will enhance the squad, and I’m sure more will be going the other way out of the club. After the success of Joe Hart, it made sense to bring in an experienced keeper, and you won’t get many top keepers with more experience than Kasper Schmeichel, we have balanced that with a young keeper with great promise in Viljami Sinisalo. Paolo Bernardo come in on a permanent contract, and hopefully Adam Idah with soon follow.

We are not finished there, we certainly need more Champions League ready players, the problem is, that established International players don’t want to play in Scotland, unless you pay them an awful lot of money. I would love us to keep Matt O’Riley, but unfortunately the power is all with the player now, but more importantly with their agent, and they don’t care about Celtic, they just want their 10%, but you never know with matt. Getting the right players to play under the pressure of winning at Celtic is another problem, take the goalie, we need a goalie who has great concentration, because in Scotland he’ll be twiddling his thumbs for most of the game. We need outfield players who are used to the pressure of winning, no good signing players who are used to avoiding relegation, we need players who are used to winning trophies.

I had the honour of attending the Requiem Mass for Rosemary Burns in St Andrews Cathedral, Glasgow last Thursday afternoon. There was great turnout for Rosemary, and it was a beautiful service for a beautiful Lady. God certainly worked another miracle when he put Rosemary and Tommy together, they were so right for each other. Rosemary wasn’t just a mother to Michael, Jonathan, Emma and Jenna, she was a mother to a lot of the players too, her Thomas would just turn up with the like of Paolo Di Canio or Jorge Cadette, she had a heart of gold, as did her Thomas.
Requiescat in aeternum pace Rosemary, gone to join your Thomas in that other Paradise.