The LOTW Milano Diary

"Ye can stick yer Thomas Cook up yer archie"

Was the song of choice from the independent travelling hoops on Tuesday and Wednesday. The feeling of resentment to the package operator and Peter Lawell was an on-going theme to everyone i spoke to.

Those who travelled via Germany, Swizterland and Outer Mongolia were all of the opinion that Thomas Cook are ticket touts and Peter Lawell needs to have a decent look at himself wie his comments.

Questions need to be asked why Lawell didnae want the fans to travel. Are they embarrassed by us? Sometimes it is easy to see why they could take that view. Our cultures take on European travel and the fact that,ahem," We're all mad for the bevvy, man" makes oor jovial antics sometimes cringe worthy.

This is not Celtic's problem though. It's a problem regarding the Scottish, Irish and English upbringing and culture. I mean, it disnny matter if all the fans travelled on TC a lot of those fans were in the same jovial mood as the independent lot.

Even though the fine line between banter and embarrassment is crossed there is never a hint of trouble. The atmosphere never turns nasty, messy maybe, but never nasty.

Even when we get herded of the metro, by big polis wie big sticks who seem to want to bash you, onto basically a cage on wheels and took to the ground.

Even when you turn up two hours before kick off to find yerself in the middle of a crush and stuck on a staircase when for a few minutes you feared the worst due to yer section already being full wie fans wie tickets from other sections of the ground.

There was never a hint of trouble. In fact on that staircase the hoops fans done well to get everyone to turn back. We never turned on the stewards who were getting over-run we just went up the next staircase and ended up in the 2nd tier wie all the Milan fans!!!

Ok, we did get moved into a section in the second tier above the nearside corner flag and in that section Hoops that had tickets for behind the goals, official and unofficial, where put due to the vast number of fans turning up wie tickets.

Me and Seven had tickets for completely different areas of the ground. We watched the game together. All this is a recipe for disaster but not for us. We got on wie it and all we wanted to do was back oor team. We were happy that we had got in. Thankful for AC being greedy for cash.

Still there was nothing nasty. No hint of trouble. The fact that we all got in was Celtics worst nightmare. The fact apart from the confusion there was no hint of bother in the stadium was their worst nightmare. The worst thing of all AC but themselves at a massive risk, but a calculated risk, that we were trustworthy. Something Celtic didnae seem to want to do.

If we hadn't got in the game would have lost something. Oor support is special on those kinds of nights. It made me proud looking aboot in the ground hearing the songs- Celtic songs- and the backing that we were giving the team. It's something that i thought we had lost.

It proved Lawell and Co have someway to eradicating us the fans and replacing us wie consumers.

The Italian Roar

The Ac fans played their part as well. The constant noise coming from behind the goals was breath taking. The brigate, the panthers, Alba Rossoneri and the drunk company kept the noise going in tactical bursts. Completly different from what we do but none the less very impressive.

When they scored, they noise they made was incredible. It wisnae like the noise here. We are a sort of "yyyyyeeeeessssss" they where a sort of "wwwwwwwwwooooooooooohhhhhhhhh" it sounded like a plane taking off. It echo round the space ship looking stadium shaking the stands. Even in such a sickening moment it was hard not to be to impressed. I mean ma hairs on the back of ma neck stood up.

I was looking to be impressed wie the fans. Always wanted to go to Italia to see a game with or withoot the Hoops. There fans seem to have a passion that we seem to be losing. I wasn't disappointed in the fans or the san siro. In fact i will go back to see AC who even though the ended oor dreams in the biggest game since Seville didnae leave the sour taste Porto did.

In fact i want them to go on and win it.

Another Glorious Failure

It was hard not to feel anything but proud of oor team. Again, though there was nagging doubt that we shoulnae really accept defeat but in the cold light of day we know oor place in the grand scheme of things.

Some will talk aboot PSV results and how we are a bigger club, which is true but PSV team has a lot more experience at this level than us. We had a team of rookies, youngsters and experienced players who are far from the top drawer. We had no right to go 180 minutes withoot losing a goal against a European heavyweight.

They knew they had been in a game. Their celebrations proved that we had run them close but not close enough. We were done by a bit of quality, a bit of quality we couldnae produce over the two games. The bottom line is we knew we lacked that creative quality and were relying on one decent ball into the box.

We accepted the Scottish trait of glorious failure due to this. We were proud of oor teams honest toil and sweat. All we asked was to give them a game and we done that. While we can gripe aboot tactics and formations the fact si we didnae have any failures, some had poor games but no-one hid or didnae try. In the aftermath of the game a few things came clearer.

While Naka is a fantastic player, the Milan games proved he is not top drawer. Along wie Tommy G, Jaro and JVOH these players are middle order european class. They will always get clubs who compete regular in Europe but will never get a move to a really big club.

For us to find someone of the class of Kaka we will have to get lucky. Arfur Boruc is the perfect example. He will move to a bigger club than Celtic. We need to find an outfield Arfur. We also need to hope that oor youth set up starts producing players of a slightly higher standard, which judging by the performances of the youngsters we could be on the way to.

Don't want to highlight individual players. They all done us proud. Just hope that we have many other nights that don't end in glorious failure but we all know we will. It's the Celtic way......

FORZA THE MIGHTY PROUD HOOPS WHO HAVE THE CHANCE TO TOP OF A GUID WEEK BY A WEE RESULT TOMORROW.