Celtic V Valencia , and some thoughts on that Hibs game.

It’s official - I’m overweight!

It’s also official that we will be playing Valencia in the next round of the Europa League.

I will, as a matter of principle, not be posting up the overplayed Larsson goal from the last time we played them, nor the penalty shoot out despite how great the atmosphere was. It was seventeen years ago, we lost, and there’s nothing memorable about it, so say this to the usual people who will post these clips up instead of romanticising a defeat.

It’ll definitely be a tough game, and we’re certainly the underdogs, but it could have been a lot worse - imagine we got Chelsea! We’re doomed if we don’t screw the nut and learn lessons from our last two performances - but we will.

Hibs more than deserved their win, punishing our laziness and tactical buffoonery with relative ease.

Scott Sinclair’s cycle is one that is likely to be ongoing with us for the rest of the season. He’ll have a nightmare, and is roundly criticised, only to then pop up with a wee goal and many will declare ‘he is back!’ before reverting yet again to a horror performance. Mark my words, it’s going to be neverending and I wish we’d just cut our losses with him. He’s a man down in these games, never mind the bigger matches we play in Europe, and although I’m fed up with him, I suspect the manager will persist with him this season time and time again.

To be fair to him, the entire team had a shocker and no one got any pass marks.

However, I do fully expect us to knuckle down and bounce back fairly resoundingly.

I read online that someone compared this season to 2004/2005 which is bonkers patter, as this Celtic team are still miles clear of this Rangers side, man for man. The 04/05 season, a few of their players would have got into ours, such as Thomas Buffel, Barry Ferguson and Shota Arveladze, who were on another level to the idiots in their current midfield and attack.

We’re also a team who can step up when we really need to. As much as complacency kicks in at times with this all conquering Celtic side, look at us against Kilmarnock the other week - ruthlessly disposed of when anything other than a win would have displayed a major weakness for the season ahead and it was the same with the marker we put down after beating Rangers in September.

Screw the nut, because there’s no doubt that eight in a row is a formality.