Hail Hail the New Captain! Its Stephen McManus!

By: JT | July 31st, 2007

Today was one heckuva day for Celtic central defender Stephen McManus. He was named Captain of the squad, and put pen to paper on a new four-year contract. As I discussed a few weeks back, this is the right move for a number of reasons. I always prefer the captain to be a central defender or central midfielder. Its better for organizational purposes that the leader be in the middle of the action. McManus is Celtic born and bred. He did just sign the new contract to ensure that he’ll be around, but there was never really any doubt. At 24, he’s accomplished domestically, in Europe and is well on his way internationally. He said today that he knows he’s not the finished article yet, and there’s work to be done. Thats the kind of attitude I want to hear. Improve every day.

Being Captain of Celtic Football Club is much more than just an on-the-field, in-the-dressing room job. There are tons of community and supporter related obligations, and McManus will be the face of the club long term. For my money, WGS got the right guy. Hail Hail the new Captain!

As Artur Boruc’s shoulder heals, former Caley Thistle keeper Mark Brown will be handling the goalkeeping chores. His old colleague at Caley, Michael Fraser, reckons Boruc will have some fighting to do in order to get his number one slot back. I will go on record as saying that I hate the “you don’t lose your job to injury” philosophy. But there is no way Brown, no matter how lights out he plays, is in net if Boruc is healthy. Period.

New talks have opened between Celtic and the representatives of Shunsuke Nakamura about extending his stay at Celtic Park. In all likelihood, Naka has two years left with the Bhoys and will move on. He has always talked about heading back to Japan, and as the article mentions, he fancies a run in Spain. His game is a natural fit there, and you can’t blame a guy like Naka for wanting a new challenge while he’s still got some gas left in the tank. I’d love to see him stick around for five more years, but I sincerely doubt it’ll happen.

Evander Sno is attracting interest from Italy, with Siena being the club most often mentioned. I like Sno, I think he’s got a long-term future at Parkhead. But you have to admit that his style of play is ideal for Serie A and he could be an impact player there. His agent says he has no intention of leaving Glasgow anytime soon, and that’s a good thing. Once he’s fully fit and Gravesen and Jiri are gone, there will be some great competition for spots in midfield.

Celtic “spied” on PSG’s Bernard Mendy while the French club was playing in the Emirates Cup this weekend in London. What a stupid headline. 18 year-old Paul Caddis appears to be the man at right back, and if that is the case, cover is undoubtedly required.