Celtic Shorts 07.12.07: Posh, Capone, & Cuauhtemoc

By: JT | July 12th, 2007

Things have been calm lately on the Celtic front as the Hoops prepare for their trip south to match up with Peterborough United and Queens Park Rangers over the weekend. The friendly with Peterborough has been lined up because their director o’ football Barry Fry is old buddies with Wee Gordon Strachan. Also, WGS’s kid Gavin (awww how cute Gordon and Gavin), is patrolling the Posh midfield along with player/manager Darren Ferguson, son of Alex. Whatever. Health, fitness, then wins Bhoys. In that order.

The papers are having a proverbial ball with the news that former Cagliari midfielder Andrea Capone is on trial with the Hoops at the moment and will travel to England for the friendlies. Cute little headlines like “Capone waiting for Celtic verdict”, “Celtic put Capone on trial” and “Capone gunning for a Celtic deal” abound today. Oh those cheeky Brits! Here’s one huge “No” on Capone. As far as I can tell this is an extremely low risk deal. He’s available on a free, so why not test him out a little? Sometimes a change of scenery can rejuvenate a player. He’d better be worth it though, if he’s taking game time away from players that need to be gaining familiarity with one another before the season gets rolling.

If there is a more handsome man in world football than Cuauhtemoc Blanco, I challenge you to find him. Blanco will be making his Chicago Fire debut against the Celts on July 22. Personally, I think Blanco is the man. You know he has that look that can freeze you in your tracks. And when he’s on the pitch, he’s like the center of the clock. He’s not moving one inch, but he’s controlling how everything around him moves. He’s brilliant to watch when he’s up for it.

Jaroslav Drobny, Czech keeper neither of us have ever heard of, claims he turned down a move to Parkhead for the comforts of Hertha Berlin. He couldn’t resist the dig at the SPL. I’ll help translate what he meant: “Boruc is there and I never would have gotten a game, so I stayed in Germany.” If you’re not wearing headgear and you’re a Czech keeper, no one cares what you say or do!

I’ll be in and out of internet range for the next 10 days or so (vacation some would call it). Posts will be sporadic at best, so if there is any breaking Celtic news you want to read about and you can’t find it here, check out Ian Rose’s stylin’ Scotland Offside for the details.