THE CELTIC UNDERGROUND PODCAST: 27 NOV 2006

 

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This is the first of what we hope will become a regular feature here on the site, aiming to take an offbeat yet in-depth look at the issues regarding Celtic, and then in rough order Scottish, as well as European football each week. Details of subscription, iTunes syndication, etc, to follow before not too long, but for now, bear with us, and most importantly, have a listen and let us know just what you think in the comment space below.

 

What can we publish in a podcast that we can’t print in an article? To begin with, we hope the show can provide the opportunity for a variety of contributors to pursue topics with more room for maneouvre and exchange than the print medium often permits. More importantly however, it strikes us that, for now at least, there are few alternatives of the sort. A cursory glance at the sports programming on offer on iTunes, for instance, throws up a batch of mainly English-based broadcasts, of varying standard, yet mainly identical in their devotion to viewing world football from the vantage point of an arse-swallowed head. Those sources more specifically devoted to Celtic and Scottish football on the other hand, tend to concentrate more on scripted news items or basic rehashes of radio phone-in content which, whilst of use to the average Scotland Today viewer annoyed at missing the sports bulletin, hardly represent the pot of gold at the end of a trek through umpteen pages containing XML info and posts reading ‘all I get is a lot of nonsense when I click on the link’.

 

Our podcast is aimed at the supporter with a view to following football in general, through the prism of Celtic in particular. Celtic operate in a European context nowadays, and most supporters have a better idea of who plays in the first-team at Valencia than at Falkirk. Yet very little domestic reportage genuinely reflects that. If you’re the kind of person who is first to yell ‘what the **** is this doing on a Celtic site?’, you can always switch off at the first sign of any given no-no, which this week, for example, might well be our short wander through the European daisies (without tripping over and getting the daisies yellow-carded that is).

 

Each podcast will be in the region of 30 minutes, perhaps on a weekly basis where possible, but certainly fortnightly. For this test-run edition, resident podders James Kelly and Gerry Daley are joined by guest Ade Gorman, exiled scouser and editor of Rebel Arts magazine here in Glasgow. Victory over Manchester United and Celtic’s placing in the greater scheme of European football; a dramatic fightback at Easter Road; the contractual wranglings involving Sean Maloney and, potentially, Aiden McGeady; Table-topping European clashes and the latest Ronaldinho-ism to savour; all that and more placed under the microscope. Plus, details of the forthcoming competitions due to decorate the festive period here on Celtic Underground.

 

We encourage comments, ideas and suggestions, and in no way because the whole venture has exposed a complete lack of any of our own.