Gravensen Gone; McFadden says “Nothing Doing”

By: Matt | August 20th, 2008

Celtic were finally able to shed the 180 lbs. of excess weight when they agreed to a contract buyout with Thomas Gravensen. Last season, the Danish player had a season long loan at Everton and was not able to impress Gordon Strachan upon his return to Celtic to get into the first team. For the most part, the former “Goal II:Living the Dream” actor had spent the preseason touring various parts of Ireland with a team of “Celtic XI” made up of youth players and reserves. Gravensen’s last appearance at Celtic Park was the friendly match against Manchester City that also saw such reserves prisoners as Derek Riordan and Massimo Donati play. When talking about Gravensen’s failure to establish himself at Celtic, Gordon Strachan had this to say “”We tried our best to get a system which suited Thomas and it hasn’t worked, It was the system to blame, not the player or the club.” Really, it sounds like it was actually yourself and the club’s fault for bringing in a player with ~~overpriced~~ HUGE wages who was ~~overrated~~ not fit for your system.

There have been longstanding rumors that Scottish International star James McFadden will be brought into Celtic. These rumors are starting to take Robbie Keane proportions, but the Birmingham star has recently knocked back any chance of moving to Scotland when he said, “”To be perfectly honest I wouldn’t entertain a move to Glasgow. I’m happy to be playing outside Scotland at the minute,” said McFadden. He then added, “Especially with the press that’s been going about for Rangers and Celtic.” After Birmingham City went down last season, there was talk of McFadden leaving for first team football somewhere else and even McFadden admits his Birmingham future is a bit unsure but he’s no closer to a move to Celtic or Rangers than you or me. “I wasn’t at Ibrox or Parkhead last week so that’s how far those rumours went,” he said. “It’s hard to tell but at the minute I’m there unless I’m told otherwise.”