With Bobo Balde no longer under contract at the club we have finally seen the passing of the Seville squad with every member of the team having left. Admittedly Shaun Maloney came back but you know what I mean. It's the end of an era and as such I thought it was appropriate to dig this out and finally have a look at it. My wife recorded this for me while I was sweltering in the stadium (I was the only guy in Seville wearing a long sleeved shirt and long trousers - I burn under a 40 watt bulb.) I have never watched it and even now as I type this I haven't looked at it. (In fact she may have recorded Coronation Street and the Bill by mistake.) However, I feel I may finally be ready to watch it.
Maybe.
It's been split into a number of parts to allow folk to watch what they feel they can cope with...
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
Alexander Pope
This being the close season – of sorts – football writers are forced, in the absence of real news, to create articles in order to satisfy the insatiable thirst of fans for stuff about their favourite sport or their particular club.
For bona fide journalists such as Hugh McIlvanney, Brian Glanville, Kevin McCarra, et al, this gives them the opportunity to exercise their creative writing talents – in a similar vein to sports writers of earlier generations such as Paul Gallico or Dan Jenkins. The best can write brilliantly on more than one sport or indeed turn their hand to fiction – the short story being an obvious vehicle for their talents.
For the average Joe who makes a living in the cesspool of the SPL this time of year often has no real significance other than the fact that they don’t actually have to spend any time watching games while making up their stories – they can simply do their jobs without ever leaving their desks or in the modern context their computer screen, which will be constantly searching the web for some snippet of news.
Imagine Celtic had the finest goal scorer in British football.
Imagine if season after season he topped the scoring charts, throughout his period at Parkhead, regularly outscoring his contemporaries in the country such as Shearer, Owen, Henry, Van Nistelrooy, Drogba and Torres.
Imagine if Roman Abramovitch invited him to London and personally offered him a blank cheque the Celts and yet our man refuses, not wanting to leave Parkhead out of sheer blind loyalty to Celtic, to the astonishment of all and sundry.
Imagine…
And yet in the 1930’s the above actually happened. James Edward McGrory, Celtic’s finest son bar none, refused untold riches from English giants Arsenal (curiously under pressure from his mentor Willie Maley) to remain a Celt. McGrory, a goal scoring machine and the greatest centre forward British football has ever seen, stayed faithful to Celtic for almost his entire career, only a short spell at Clydebank breaking the Celtic link.
A special edition this week. Celticunderground is delighted to present for you a new Celtic fan podcast. The lostbhoys podcast (www.lostbhoys.com ) is a brand new addition to the growing band of Celtic fan produced media. Dedicated to the overseas fans the lostbhoys podcast is produced by a few hardy souls in North America and provides a different perspective on our club. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and the lostbhoys certainly love the club. The lostbhoys intend to produce one of these on, at worse, a fortnightly schedule and we wish them all the very best. If we can get another three or so hour long podcasts being produced we'll never need to listen to the Radio Clyde phone in ever again. Check out the guys' site at www.lostbhoys.com
Michael Kelly from the AICSC (www.aicsc.com ) joins Eddie this week to discuss following Celtic from the Emerald Isle. Michael talks of his first game at Celtic Park and the players who he most identified with as a boy. They then move onto the formation of the Association and the thinking behind it. Michael talks of the benefits of being part of a CSC. Finally they move onto a discussion surrounding the AICSC dinner which takes place on the 4th of July (we also learn why this is a special day for Eddie.) Tickets for the dinner can be obtained from the official website of the AICSC - www.aicsc.com
A special edition this week. Celticunderground is delighted to present for you a new Celtic fan podcast. The lostbhoys podcast (www.lostbhoys.com) is a brand new addition to the growing band of Celtic fan produced
media. Dedicated to the overseas fans, the lostbhoys podcast is produced
by a few hardy souls in North America and provides a different
perspective on our club. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder
and the lostbhoys certainly love the club. The lostbhoys intend to
produce one of these on, at worse, a fortnightly schedule and we wish
them all the very best. If we can get another three...
Michael Kelly from the AICSC (www.aicsc.com )
joins Eddie this week to discuss following Celtic from the Emerald
Isle. Michael talks of his first game at Celtic Park and the players
with whom he most identified as a boy. They then move onto the formation
of the Association and the thinking behind it. Michael talks of the
benefits of being part of a CSC. Finally they move onto a discussion
surrounding the AICSC dinner which takes place on the 4th of July (we
also learn why this is a special day for Eddie.) Tickets for the dinner
can be obtained from the official website of...
Eddie Pearson and Michael Dolan are giddy as a couple of school girls
over the arrival of BTM as manager. They discuss their first
impressions from Mowbray's press conference. They talk about the amount
of time which this appointment has taken. They look ahead to some of
the challenges that the new man will face. And they make sure everyone
and his dog knows that the Celticunderground website predicted Tony Mowbray
was to be the new manager weeks ago. An unusually positive and upbeat
podcast this week. Could this be the start of a brave new era for the
podcast or will it be back to the same...
And another one comes along almost straight away. This edition of the
podcast sees Tam Donnelly from the NAFCSC joining Eddie Pearson on a fairly bad line to chat
about growing up as a Celtic fan in the fifties, following Celtic from
afar and the stresses and strains of organising the biggest Celtic fan
convention in the world. Tam talks extensively about the Las Vegas
Celtic Supporters Convention and, amongst other things, the impact it
has upon the locals. We also have a quick word about the new manager.
This was recorded on the 30th of May and sadly we've still not got our
man in place.
The Podcast hits number 50 and it's an excuse for a curry. St Anthony,
Harry Brady, James Kelly and Eddie Pearson head out to The Dhabba in
the Merchant City and talk about the potential candidates for the
Celtic job. As you can imagine the conversation quickly heads off
course and we find ourselves discussing all manner of things Celtic.
Just four Celtic fans talking rubbish about the bhoys. It seems somehow
appropriate for our 50th edition.
Tigers boss Phil Brown says he will look at other transfer targets if Marc-Antoine Fortune does not decide if he will join Hull in the next day or two.
Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer; Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike, Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.
Imagine Celtic had the finest goal scorer in British football.
A special edition this week. Celticunderground is delighted to present for you a new Celtic fan podcast. The lostbhoys podcast (