Fans of our Glasgow rivals are cock-a-hoop today after signing Wales international Aaron Ramsey on a six month loan deal. The deal has been predictably met with a huge overreaction from theRangers support acting like they have signed a 25-year-old Leo Messi as opposed to a 31-year-old Aaron Ramsey who has played a grand total of 112 minutes this season.
Do they even know that he will NOT be involved at Celtic Park tomorrow night as he is nowhere near match fit?
From the horse’s mouth, via a report in Evening Times, Ramsay admitted: “I’m probably going to be a little bit short for the Old Firm game but hopefully I can get myself ready this week and look forward to getting ready for the weekend, really,” Ramsey told Rangers TV.
“I’ve had these conversations with the manager and the staff and hopefully we can get a plan in place to get going and back up to match fitness as soon as possible.”
Here’s how Sky Sports broke that loan signing story…
Lets be honest if he was anywhere near the player that Juventus handed a bumper contract to a few years back they would certainly have reason to be so happy. Unfortunately for them that’s far from the case. Juventus couldn’t wait to get rid of Ramsey. The fact they are willing to pay a huge chunk of his wages to get him off their books proves as much. I doubt we will hear how much they are shelling out as that would attract too many questions about where the money is coming from but you can guarantee its a budget buster.
Let me tell you what this is. This is desperation. This is panic. This is a gamble they will be on their knees praying will pay off otherwise they have just chucked away a load of cash they don’t have. I’ll also tell you the reason why they have taken this gamble. It’s due to the events of Saturday where the title pendulum swung towards Celtic after they showed their mettle by scoring a late winner on the same day as their title rivals bottled it by conceding a late equaliser against Ross County. That draw came on the back of the another two dropped points at Pittodrie and theRangers lead has gone from six points to just two ahead of their visit to play in-front of 60,000 Celtic supporters at Paradise tomorrow evening.
You can guarantee the people who run that basket case of a club began this season looking at Celtic and the complete overhaul that had just happened inside a couple of months and thought this season would be a ‘gimmie’ and you can hardly blame them for that assessment. Surely with all these changes happening inside Celtic Park such a short period of time Celtic would need at least a year to gel? They weren’t the only ones thinking that. Plenty of people agreed. The bookies agreed. Things haven’t transpired that way though. Ange Postecoglou has defied all expectations to be one win away on Wednesday from topping the table.
Our latest city rivals are spooked. We are in this position while navigating a terrible injury crisis as well as dealing with some of our best players being on the opposite side of the world on international duty. No matter what happens on Wednesday we are in the driving seat. When our players arrive back from representing their countries and the others return from injury I expect us to put together a blistering run of form to the end of the season. This was their chance to take advantage and they have crumbled under the pressure. We will only get stronger.
The Ramsey signing, to use an American football term, is a Hail Mary. An act of desperation. They can’t afford to lose out on the reward that winning this year’s league title will bring in the form of guaranteed Champion League money. So they are doing what they always do. Throwing money at a problem and hoping it will go away. Will the signing of an aging, injury prone player change the course of this season? I don’t believe so. They have to believe it will however. As the thought of Celtic claiming that reward they so badly need is the stuff of their nightmares.
More significant is perhaps the news that a deadline deal bid for John Souttar was thrown out by Hearts who awaited an increased bid throughout the day, that never arrived and the Scotland International defender will be playing in the Edinburgh Derby tonight rather than the Glasgow one tomorrow evening where he could have perhaps shored up a defence that leaked three goals in Dingwall at the weekend. Maybe they just never had the money to sign Souttar due to their other transfer activities in the past week, including the loan deal to sign a player they’ll have to get fit in order to play. Juve fans everywhere will be saying ‘good luck with that one’.
Celtic are usually busy on the last day of the window, bringing in loan deals or projects. Instead under Ange Postecoglou our big three signings were announced on Hogmanay and yesterday was all about sending fringe players out on loan, with Adam Montgomery’s move to Aberdeen being the most clever of the lot, strengthening a side who have taken four points from the Ibrox side this season (remember it could have been six with that dodgy penalty calls in both matches going the way of theRangers). Montgomery strengthens Aberdeen against them but can’t play against Celtic. Clever.
In Ange we trust.
Conall McGinty
Today's Gossip: A few outgoing issues could still be resolved as transfer windows still open in some leagues, so watch this space on Soro, Barkas & Ajeti. New u18 coach on Ange “He’s re-energised the whole place, the fans have taken to him and the sky is the limit right now,” HH pic.twitter.com/czM9A9mAYh
— Celtic Gossip (@CelticGossip) February 1, 2022
Hard to predict the old firm game, both teams missing players and a boost that Ramsey isn’t match fit as we can’t deny on form he is leagues above any Celtic midfielder. As you say good we did our business early, not just for this season but for a good pre-season ahead of next year’s CL challenge.
Ange has done a great job but Taylor v Diallo scares me. On the counter-attack with space to run into I do worry about that side of the pitch v Rangers. Fortunately Rangers are struggling up top and Itten won’t put the fear into any Celtic defender that’s for sure. At full strength i’d be confident of beating them now at home..fingers crossed we do it tomorrow!