No doubt you are like me, and beginning to pine for the “real” football season to begin again. The World Cup is all very well – in fact it has been surprisingly good and surprisingly well organised by our oil-rich friends – but my main concern has been that no Celtic player gets injured, and so far my wish has been granted, and Cameron Carter-Vickers, Aaron Mooy and Daizen Maeda are all, to the best of my knowledge heading back to Scotland unscathed and unavailable for selection for Pittodrie next weekend. Josip Juranovic should also be on an aeroplane pretty soon, I think.
They have VAR in the World Cup as well. No-one will be able to tell me that it has been a rip-roaring success there any more than it has been in Scotland, but it does seem to have had one effect. There has been a comparative lack of red cards (so far, anyway) as if everyone is beginning to behave, now knowing that there is no escape.
There have been exceptions, like our Welsh goalkeeper friend the other week, for example, but generally speaking, brawls and fisticuffs have not been a major part of the World Cup scene. There is clearly a parallel with CCTV reducing crime, and maybe having “Big Brother” watching you is not such a bad thing after all!
But to return to the “real” football, I keep reading rubbish (often written by people who should know better) that the Scottish League is already won, that nine points is an unbridgeable gap and that our foes are already concentrating on the two domestic Cups etc.
Believe that at your peril! Celtic are quite capable of throwing everything away in a few games at the end – 1980, 1983, 1987 and 2005 spring to mind. We are “handily placed”, I would agree, but December is no time to be counting chickens (maybe that should be turkeys?). There are still, if my maths is still good, 23 games left in the Scottish League, and in the immediate future, we have trips to Pittodrie, Easter Road and Ibrox. These always have been and always will be difficult venues.
I am looking forward to seeing Callum McGregor again. He has not exactly been totally missed because we have had adequate replacements, but there is sheer class in that boy. And we have a couple of new recruits for the New Year as well! Life is exciting!
In general terms, the World Cup, the Scottish Premiership and indeed every competition you care to think of have this in common. They will be won by the team who does the basics the best – the team that takes its chances, and that stops the other team from scoring. “The taking of chances” means that England have at least a chance; and the failure to take chances explains why Celtic are no longer in Europe. Football may well deserve to be called “the beautiful game”; it is also a very simple one. Create chances, and take them and you will be the champions of the world!
Pittodrie a week come Saturday is getting closer!
David Potter
