Getting players to sign for Celtic is always easier than getting players to leave, especially if they are on good contracts and are going to lesser clubs.

And this transfer window is no different.

With Lenny trying to bring in new faces to freshen things up and hopefully improve the team, the need to move players on is being somewhat undermined by the reluctance of Georgios Samaras to leave Celtic Park.

Apparently a move to Sunderland in the Premiership isn’t what the bold Sammy sees as a good move. Whether that’s true or not the fact is the big Greek isn’t for shifting his ass away from Glasgow.

Neither it seems is Shaun Maloney.

Wigan have made a move for constantly injured player but haven’t met the valuation Celtic have on Shaun. God knows what that will be!

On the flip side, we did get a new player in today, on the recommendation of the King of Kings. Mo Bangura put pen to paper on a four year deal to ply his trade in Paradise after signing from AIK Solna in Sweden.

A fee of around £2m was reported to have changed hands for the Sierre Leone striker.

With just over 24hrs to go until the transfer window closes I’m sure we’ll see at least one other face coming to Glasgow, let’s hope a couple go the other way!

There’s something about playing Aberdeen this season.

Scoring a total of twenty-one goals in five games takes some doing, when you consider we’ve only lost a single goal in return. That’s the stats we’re looking at tonight.

Quite remarkable, 9-0, 1-0, 3-0, 4-1 and now 4-0. (The only thing the Dons have won is the sending-off count at 3!)

It’s no wonder the Faithful would like to play our Northern neighbours EVERY week!

Anyway, that’s not going to happen so let’s stop gloating and get on with today’s Scottish Cup semi-final.

Recently I posted on this site a kinda tongue-in-cheek question; Is Stokesy A Hibs player? Well after twenty minutes of the game it looked like he was trying to live up to that billing missing two gilt-edged chances AND a penalty.

The penalty a result of Hooper being brought down by Considine who saw red, reducing the Sheep to ten men with only nineteen minutes on the clock.

Although he was busy and causing the Aberdeen defence problems you have to wonder how he’s scored so many goals this season. Though in fairness to the big Irishman, Jamie Langfield has a good first half and was instrumental in keeping the scores blank at half-time.

That was all about to change after the interval.

Only minutes into the second-half Charlie Mulgrew swung in a long range free-kick that everyone missed, including the aforementioned Langfield and nestled in the Dons net. 1-0 Celtic.

The goal seemed to settle Celtic and it wasn’t long before we doubled our lead.

After 56 minutes, Joe Ledley slipped Stokes’ cut back past the Dons keeper for his third Scottish Cup goal of the season, and his second Hampden goal in successive games.

The game was effectively over now and the Bhoys started to stroke the ball about with ease, but that didn’t stop the players wanting more.

And when Stokes chased down a lost cause in the Dons’ box, Derek Young stupidly brought the striker down to give Celtic the chance to increase our lead.

This time Kris Commons stepped up to send Langfield the wrong way and make it 3-0 to the Hoops.

That was Celtic’s 20th goal against Aberdeen and we weren’t going to stop, so it came as no surprise when substitute Shaun Maloney knocked the ball over the line to finish off the scoring. Celtic 4 Aberdeen 0!

All in all a good day for Lenny & the Bhoys, and the chance to give Shaun, Paddy and Big Dan some game time was a bit of icing on the cake.

Well done Celts!

With the lull in our domestic season now is probably as good a time as any to look back at some of the goals the Celtic have scored this season.

We’ve complied a wee video with FIVE crackers from the Bhoys.

And we’ve added a wee poll so you can vote for your favourite.

Enjoy!

C’mon the Hoops!

Although Celtic lost 3-1 to Manchester United in front of 30,000 fans in Toronto last night , manager Neil Lennon was pleased with the overall performance from his charges.

Without reading too much into the result, Lenny must be chuffed to get a full game out of young Norwegian defender Thomas Rogne and 75 minutes from Shaun Maloney. Shaun was given the man of the match from Celtic’s official website.

The game also allowed the manager to give a first full debut to James Forrest and introduce new signing South Korean Cha Du-Ri.

But ironically, it was the introduction of the Greek enigma Georgios Samaras that changed the way the match was going.

Sammy had a headed goal disallowed then took the spot kick to equalise after another new Bhoy, Joe Ledley was upended by Man Utd’s Chris Smalling just after the hour mark.

Sporting what looked like a disguise, (wait ’til you see his Judean National Front beard) Sammy slammed the ball high into the net past Van der Sar to score Celtic’s first goal of their North American tour.

It’s possible that Sammy is playing for a move or the fact that Daryl Murphy has signed jolted the player into a performance. With the big man you just never know!

Two goals in the last eleven minutes, the second a heavy deflection, saw the English side evenually run out 3-1 winners.

Next stop, Seattle on Sunday where nearly 50, 000 fans await the Hoops take on local side Seattle Sounders.

Every team gets injuries. There’s no doubt about that.

But three injuries in particular and the timing of them made me wonder‘what if’ these Bhoys had stayed fit.

The players in question are; Shaun Maloney, Jos Hooiveld and Thomas Rogne.

Let’s take them one at a time.

Shaun Maloney: Made his last appearance in the Hoops against Hertz in the Co-Operative Cup quarter final at Celtic Park. That was on the 28th October 2009.

Despite many false dawns and promises of recovery, Maloney never made it back into the first team for the rest of the season. His ‘tendonitis’ injury seems to be more of a mystery than an ailment. It remains to be seen if Shaun will be fit for the new season. Some reports out of Celtic Park point to the injury being  ‘career threatening’.

Hopefully not. Shaun showed in the first Derby game of the season at Legoland just what he can do, although both his penalty claims were denied, he was a constant thorn in the MM’s side.

Who knows what impact he might have had if he’d lasted the season?

Jos Hooiveld: Tony Mowbray took the bull by the horns and moved on Gary Caldwell and Captain Calamity Stephen McManus in the January window, just as the fans wanted him to. He then brought in Joos Hoiveld from Denmark to replace them.

The big Dutchman had a fine debut at Hamilton in Celtic’s 1-0 win, thanks to a goal from fellow debutant Morten Rasmussen.

However, Jos was to suffer misfortune in only his second game for the Hoops. Although most of the hype at Kilmarnock was the debut of Robbie Keane, Celtic lost two of the starting back four due to injury that night.

Jos hobbled of with a hamstring injury and didn’t feature again all season.

Thomas Rogne: The young Norwegian came to the club as more of a ‘prospect’ than an immediate player. That soon changed. A mixture of good performances for the ‘stiffs’ and injuries to the first team presented Thomas with a debut at Celtic Park against Dundee United in mid February.

Only a week later he played at the Hunnery and looked to be a good find, only for injury to strike once again. Thomas pulled his hamstring, sound familiar?

Unlike Hooiveld and Maloney, Rogne did pull on the Hoops again last season, making and appearance at Tannadice a full two months after Ipox.

But it didn’t last too long, in fact he didn’t even make half-time before being replaced by Darren O’Dea.

So, would the ‘lost Bhoys’ have made a difference?

We’ll never know!

Watching Sky Sports News this morning the wee banner at the bottom happened to do a quick preview of tomorrow’s Scottish Cup tie at Kilmarnock.

Apparently, Marc-Antoine Fortune and Glenn Loovens have trained and look certain to be included in the squad for the game.

Then, something strange happened on my TV.

The next screen mentioned……Shaun Maloney!

Remember him?

According to Sky, Shaun will resume training next week. Of course they don’t say how long he’ll last before he’s injured again.

That’s anybodys guess.

Shaun Keeping Busy While He's Injured!

Here’s a picture of Shaun in case you’ve forgotten what he looks like……

What’s the point in playing at the Bigotdome?

You go there, try your best to play football and all you get is a blanket of blue shirts hell bent on kicking ten shades of shite out you with the backing of incompetent officials.

Before I go any further, if Celtic take the chances presented, namely Shaun Maloney’s two, then we win the game hands down. They couldn’t and wouldn’t get back into a game where they don’t have a lead to defend.

Which leads me nicely onto the game itself and the inept refereeing on show.

To say the ref got it wrong is an understatement. Twice in the opening twenty minutes Shaun Maloney was upended by old codger Davie Weir. Yip, not once but twice.

Did we get a penalty?

No chance, instead Shaun gets a booking and the ref bottles it. So, the second time the wee man goes down, again a stonewall penalty , but Craig Thomson bottles once more.

Surely a booking? Naw, that would have meant a sending-off and even more scrutiny of his deplorable display.

But it gets worse.

After his rush to book Maloney for diving, he then lets off Mendes in the middle of the park for blatant simulation. The Portugese simply ran out of ideas and took a dive. Why wasn’t he cautioned?

Because in the second half when the wee bastard pulled down Aiden he was booked for the first time, instead of the second.

Inconsistent? It gets worse.

The manager with no name then throws on Nacho Ned and Oscar Winner Lafferty to try and get the ball off Celtic. At one point the possession was 65/35 in our favour.

Immediately Novo goes on a mission to ‘maim’ Mark Wilson and Lafferty spends his whole time on the park making Bruce Lee like challenges on anything in the Hoops.

Eventually, the ref did book both, but only after the pair had tried to take out several Celtic players.

This damning verdict on the officials is made even worse with the ‘admission’ by the referee that he should have given Celtic a penalty after 12 minutes.

Same as Kenny Clark did when Neil Lennon was scythed down at the Hun end a few years back.

So, fellow Tims there we have it.

The ref says sorry and we all have to forget about it.

Maybe we should get one of our players to go on a rant about the referees like Kenny Miller did. Seems to work if you want to get every decision in your next game!

P.S. If it’s any consolation eleven of Scotland’s Shame are up in court today for rioting in Manchester. Hope they all get life!

Just as Marc-Antoine Fortune was beginning to get to grips with Scottish football, he manages to pick up an injury that will have him sidelined for the next couple of months.

With £3.8m of Tony’s overall transfer budget invested in the big man, it’s a huge loss for the manager.

It also highlights our lack of depth in the striking department.

First choice striker Scott McDonald will now be partnered by the big Greek enigma, that is Georgios Samaras.

Now don’t get me wrong, I like big Sammy. He’s honest and like the start of last season can be unplayable at times, but he’s also frustrating with a first touch that couldn’t trap a bag of cement.

And if……

Sammy gets a knock we’re down to Kiwi Chris Killen to take the lead upfront.

Killen did have a good pre-season and Tony knows him better than most, but can you count on him to score the winner in a tight SPL game?

Naw.

So that then leaves us with pairing Skippy and Shaun Maloney? Even this early in the season the decision to loan out Cillian Sheridan might come back to haunt us. Like it did last season.

Much has been written so far this season about the form of Aiden McGeady, and quite rightly so, but for me the man on top of his form is Shaun Maloney.

The wee man was magnificent in the first half last week up in Aberdeen, and although he was quieter on Tuesday he bounced back brilliantly yesterday.

Scoring two goals and picking out Marc-Antoine Fortune for his first Celtic goal were just a couple of pieces of magic from the wee Celt.

His direct running at defenders had the Saints diving all over the place.

If he keeps up this kind of form then the Bhoys are going to be untouchable this season….in Scotland at least!

Hacks up and down the land will be scratching their heads trying to second guess what kind of team and what formation the gaffer will put out at Legoland this Saturday.

WGS Keeps Us Guessing!

Will he play Paul Hartley? Bring in Shaun Maloney? Stick with Glenn Loovens at the back? Or even recall Darren O’Dea and go with the same tactics that won us the CIS Cup?

A lot will depend on the injury situation nearer kick-off, but in reality…

It’s all a guessing game…

I don’t even think Lesley (his missus) knows what Ghord is thinking!

So, we’ll all just have to sit and wait….and wait…and wait…

Is it no Saturday yet??