Celtic in Portugal…to play an English and Welsh team.

By: Matt | July 21st, 2008

On Sunday Celtic touched down in Portugal to prepare for their participation in Algrave Cup tournament. In Portugal, Celtic will take on Middlesborough, on Tuesday at 21:30 (4:30 Eastern) and Cardiff City on Thursday at 21:30. Meeting the rest of the Green and White in Portugal were Euro bhoys Jan Vennergoor of Hesselink and Artur Boruc, who were given an extended holiday after their participation in the Euro 2008 tournament. Sunday also saw Shunsuke Nakamura participate in training for the first time this training period. Apparently Ben Hutchinson and Paddy McCourt are injured and will not be available for the affair in Portugal, but besides these two, a full squad is expected. Of course, Celtic are hoping to rebound from a poor performance on Saturday against Fulham. Barry Robson was the only bright light, netting a pretty free kick goal for the Bhoys only goal of the afternoon. However, the talk of the match was not the on field play, but rather the on field antics of one particular Fulham player.

Fulham and Northern Ireland striker David Healy let Celtic fans know just what his favorite instrument on the 12th of July is, taunting Celtic fans by mimicking the playing of an orange flute in front of the Celtic end during warm ups. Healy is a known member of the Orange Order, but has issued an apology for the act. Bollocks. He’s not sorry he did it, but rather sorry that he got caught. Fulham and the Irish Football Association are looking into the incident, and I would hope that this cunt gets some type of punishment. Celtic tries to distance itself from sectarian elements that make up much of its rivalry with Rangers, and the same can be said for many teams associated with or having a following of Unionists in Northern Ireland, but when players are setting examples like Healy is, then it is hard to make any progress in this matter.
Picture of the act: