Celtic Shorts 09.04.07–National Teams Annoy Me

By: JT | September 4th, 2007

I know there are a ton of national team supporters out there, reading the Offside, and all across the footballing universe. But for someone like myself who does not pledge allegiance to any particular national side but to their club, breaks like the one Celtic are currently on only serve to piss me off.

The squad was white hot, scoring 10 in their last two SPL matches, and winning their Champions League qualifier against a very good Spartak Moskva side. The Bhoys mojo is in neutral and now we can only sit around twiddling our thumbs while we pray before we read each match report that it doesn’t reveal something horrible for the club.

Yup, I’m talking injuries. Case in point is Australian striker Scott McDonald, who has recently cemented his place as first choice partner of Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink in the Bhoys’ attack. He’s back on international duty after sitting out the Asian Cup to settle in at Celtic, and has withdrawn from the side with a hammy strain. Now I know this isn’t a worst case scenario thing, but if these weren’t friendly matches, you can be damn sure they’d be pushing him out there, risking a long term absence from his employer, ie The Celtic Football Club (est 1888), and doubling my risk of ulcers.

Luckily, this time around, even Shunsuke Nakamura is staying local, as Japan is chilling out in Austria. Less miles on his legs can only be a good thing as the season progresses and a trip to Ukraine looms in about two weeks time.

World class Celtic keeper Artur Boruc thinks the break helps the club out because younger players get a boost from their call-ups and the fringe players can get some action when they play for their country (not that kind, sicko). Um, Artie, no. I love ya, but I don’t quite buy your argument here.

Midfield savage Scott Brown has dismissed the rumors that several English Premiership clubs were prepared to offer Celtic as much as £9m for his services just before the transfer deadline. That would have been double the cash that Celtic paid for him just four months ago from Hibernian, and he’s looked well worth that kind of cash so far this season.

For his part, Brown says that he’s committed to Celtic for the next few years, and is pumped about the upcoming Champions League battles. Truth be told, if he continues to progress as expected, his time to move will come, but I’m thinking Celtic will be getting quite a bit more than £9m for him when it does.

I’m not sure how good of news this is, but £17m Milan striker Alexandre Pato, aka The Duck (see, pato means duck in español, how cheeky!) can not play club football for a club based outside Brazil until he’s 18 according to recently passed legislation in his home country. Since he turned 18 after the summer transfer window closed, he can not register in Italy until the next window opens in January of 2008. This means he’ll miss both the Champions League group stage matches against the Celts. Its gotta be great news right, cause, like, Milan have no other talent, right?