Dr Jo? I Presume......

"What Do You Mean This Is Ma Team, Jock....."

As ma “weeningoffromuselessfitbamessageboards” continues after I proved that, I could or, mair like, proving that in a enforced absence I don’t need to find oot what Hector Smectum fae Naewhereville is spouting crap aboot…. I have found other uses for this thing called the Timternet….

Like watching fitba’ for he haw, legally of course. Well, I did watch West Ham v Birmingham on some dodgy Chinese channel- it left me very unfulfilled, crap game, poor tactics, poor players..like watching an overpaid SPL- but I found that some betting sites have live streaming of games, which must be legal…

My Fridays are now complete, running home early from work to watch FC St. Pauli play in the Bundesliga 2 then maybe catching some obscure Portuguese League game rounded off by watching a Serie B game….

No much bother there you may think- MrsG might say differently- these wee teams must get paid from these sites to stream games? I’m not stealing revenue from them, I’m contributing…so what aboot the big boys?

A wee Google search shows that you can basically see EVERY EPL game at 3pm on a Saturday. This week was the first week that r*ngers had pulled their hame game from the overseas streams. I asked maeself if Celtic would do the same?

Of course they are after the courts have got involved in banning pubs round aboot Celtic Park and Glesga toon center from showing the games on Polstat. Round the grounds I can understand- though why guys pay their bus / plane / train fare then sit in the boozer and don’t go in is beyond me- but stopping overseas Hoops seeing the game streamed onto their laptops in their living rooms is taking it bit far.

Right, I know the Hoops want you to subscribe to Channel 67, which isnae available to everyone and feedback proves it is shoddy, and I think everyone who WANTS to subscribe does. For me the stopping of this overseas screening- lot of the channels who screen the games are Asian or Japanese- will damage the Celtic “Brand”- fecking hate that word- in the long run.

I mean imaging a club stopping their games being screened in the countries where we have signed their biggest stars to sell shirts….

And imaging us depriving the world of seeing Aiden McGeady twinkle toe his way to superstardom. Banning these screenings will only make his defection to the EPL mair hyped on these streams…

That is the maist worrying thing aboot Aiden. His “Zidane” turn and play this year- and also the press bigging him up is a worrying turn- means that the stories of those EPL vultures coming in wie “Huttonesq” money are just round the corner…

But that’s a worry for another day. For now, as the Hoops are finding form, for me, the comparisons wie dark days in oor recent past are all too relevant.

Firstly I mentioned the impact Georgios Of The Jungleios has had on the support. I compared it to Craig Bellamy’s arrival. We were struggling before the January windae, also, that season, Bellars arrival gave us a much needed boost but….as we all know it was only a temporary boost, the teams failings still shone through before the season was oot.

Then the fitba’ that we are playing and the make up of the team are reminding me of Dr Jo’s class of 1998/99. A team that plunged the lows, scaled the heights but failed when the chips were doon.

At the back, we were similar. Right, Johnnie Gould or Stewart Kerr widnae lace the Holy Goalies boots or should that be Velcro his gloves. Mick and Caldwell are as fallible as Stubbs and Reiper. Full backs, Lee Naylor ,Stephane Mahe and Tosh could have been separated at birth- all were / are prone to erratic displays- and Hinkel, Boyd and Jackie are/were international, ahem, class…

Midfield, if Aiden continues he will reach the heights reached by Rigi Blinker, if Paul Lambert could grow a world class beard then Paul Hartley would be looking in the mirror, Scott Broon is Craig Burley wieoot the goals- and the terrible hair- and Simon Donnelly was the original Nakamura.

The cover for the midfield as well, The David Hannah tapes is surely used in all Dutch Academies…..

Up front, Viduka and Henke. One a lazy sod wie talent and the other a pest, a goalscorer and a worker. Jvoh and Skippy anyone? Also add in Burchill- Derek Riordon- Brattbakk- Chris Killen- and the original longhaired lover from, eh, Leith Darren Jackson was the original Georgios….

Dr Jo’s sides are ridiculed looking back. Failing to beat Kilmarnock three times, losing to St Johnstone twice, drawing wie Dundee, losing 4 goals to Fc Zurich and failing to score at home against St Pats quite rightly makes praise of this period seem hard. But….

From mid December to the game we lost the league, we went 19 games unbeaten in all competitions. During that spell we scored 57 goals. This included five goal maulings of Dunfermline, St Johnstone, Aberdeen- a 5-1 victory at The Rhodders- and Dundee. We scored 4 against Hearts and Dunfermline, three against Dundee and Morton plus got a 2-2 draw at ipox.

In this spell we beat Motherwell 7-1 at Fir Park. A game that Sundays game reminded me off. Everything went right that night. Makes me remember how guid those 6.05pm kick offs were…

All in that season we scored 5 goals or more on 8 occasions, one occasion was a wee player called Lubo’s debut. In that spell we played some cracking stuff.

It all came crashing doon- like a galot from the North Stand- when der hun won 3-0 at CP. A lifeless cup final defeat followed and the ridicule has been written in history.

A run like that usually wins you leagues. Usually breeds confidence but deep doon that Hoops team knew they were missing something. A 5-1 victory then a 2-2 draw against yer rivals should give you the boost you need to overcome them but the pressure was all too much.

How will GS team 3 handle a three game decider against der hun? We are 3-0 down and huvnae laid a glove on them. We don’t look on or off the park to have the measure of them.

Dr Jo’s Celtic took results from them. We are sitting here wanting oor team now to go on a kind of free-scoring, entertaining winning streak that his team produced but when the gongs are handed oot we have had the backbone to see it through.

Then we can lay the ghost of Jo and the curse of the big loan signing to rest.

Forza