Another window, another ridiculous splurge on forward-thinking players by Premier League clubs. Of course, one club in particular scaled new heights of ridiculousness.
Once again Jim White of Sky Sports News can pack away that yellow tie, for the next 5 months at least. Another Transfer Deadline day has passed. Sky’s on site reporters can live without the fear of unruly fans shouting <insert generic sexually explicit quote> at them or prodding them in the face with what looked like a large purple vibrating sausage to the more naive of us. As per usual the day didn’t quite live up to the hype that precedes it, not that it ever could. But there were still newsworthy transfer dealings aplenty. Focussing mainly on a tail of two strikers.
In years to come, it will surely be a head-scratcher at pub quizzes across the land: Which team was knocked out of the Champions League twice in a month? Not that Celtic fans will have trouble coming up with the answer, given that events of recent weeks will linger in the memories of those associated with Celtic Park for some time to come.
I don’t wish to be late to the table by pointing out that Manchester United have problems. We all know they do. You don’t go from Premier League Champions to languishing in 7th place and outside of Europe in the space of a year without a few things going wrong. But, up until last night’s League Cup tie against MK Dons I was struggling to pinpoint exactly what my problem with them was. Why did I groan whenever they came on the TV?
As Celtic crashed out of the Champions League without even reaching the group stage I was somehow left pondering the appeal of a club like theirs. Celtic were comfortably bested by un-fancied Polish outfit Legia Warsaw 6-1 on aggregate. It was a tie that Scotland’s flagship side were never truly in and surely dented the attractiveness of the green side of Glasgow. And maybe, with it, dented the attractiveness of Scottish football.