Tuesday was a very good day. The news that Thursday’s game was on the good old BBC (and free!) merely added spice to the gingerbread of the two signings. Maybe we did not get all that we wanted from Ms Sturgeon about attendances, but there seems little doubt that things are going in the right direction there as well. Things are looking up, at last. Aren’t they?
But let us look at the two transfers. McCarthy should never have been allowed to slip through our fingers in the first place. He has two definite advantages. One is that he is Celtic daft, and the other that he is Scottish (well, Irish if you want to split hairs) and therefore understands Scotland with its referees, pitches, climate and atmosphere which so many of our imports had had problems understanding in the past.
He will also understand Celtic supporters because he has been one himself. James McCarthy may or may not have uttered the “A dream come true” or “the only team I ever wanted to play for” sort of cliche, but if he didn’t, he meant such things anyway! So welcome, James, or should we say welcome back? He is after all one of us and will be a fan with a jersey. A lot is demanded of James, and a lot will be expected. Hopefully a lot will be achieved.
And then we have Joe Hart. A high profile signing which drives a horse and cart through all the “Celtic can’t afford his wage demands” kind of nonsense that we have had rather too much of recently. Joe has had a wealth of experience all over the place including World Cups (and yes, one particular horror springs to mind!) and he is also the proud possessor of an English Cup, English League and English League Cup medal.
He now has an opportunity to do a treble of such medals in Scotland as well, and, as far as I can work out, only Kenny Dalglish has ever done that. Am I right? But one wonders whether all that experience comes close to equipping Joe for the challenge of playing for Celtic – especially in the dire circumstances of summer 2021.
So where are we? One hopes that Mr Starfelt has now played his worst ever game for Celtic, and that the rest of his career will be an upward curve, and the gentleman from the Orient Mr Furuhashi showed up well from what little we saw of him on Saturday night, so things may well be moving in the right direction.
But we still need a good striker. One fears that Odsonne Edouard is finished with Celtic – and yet he had so many glorious moments – but he will be difficult to sell to anyone who has watched TV to see any of his recent performances. He really has to be exchanged – or better still, to turn over a new leaf and shake off that lethargy and depression that has clearly got the better of him, but until something happens, we will still struggle. Celtic must be all about goal scoring.
Oh, and there was a football match in Sweden as well which gave us some encouragement. And yes, yes, I know they were lucky to pull one back at the end. Dare one hope that some of the mischief makers in the media might start using words like “crisis” about another area of Glasgow?
David Potter
