Kevin McKenna on Celtic: Time club rebuilt Parkhead's main stand

For several years there was one about Zlatan Ibrahimovic coming to Celtic to end his career on the strength of an interview somewhere that he was a right good Hoops man at heart.

Another that’s been circulating is that Dermot Desmond’s son is about to take the helm and become more proactive about Celtic affairs than his dad. This also held out the prospect of Desmond Jnr being more proactive about splashing the family poppy.

The other unsourced speculation is about the club increasing Parkhead’s capacity to around 75,000 by replacing the creaking main stand, which dates back around 100 years, with a much larger construction. This would bring it up to the level of the three Fergus McCann stands.

This is probably the most plausible rumour and mainly because it makes sense at every level. It will increase Celtic’s financial hegemony over their nearest rivals; propel Parkhead into UEFA’s orbit for hosting European finals and more or less accommodate the waiting list for a season ticket.

McCann rebuilt three stands in five years. He bequeathed the current board a legacy of financial stability that was denied to him.

They’ve had more than 20 years to modernise just one stand. This should be happening as a matter of some urgency.

Qatar upshots

For several reasons, I wasn’t relishing this World Cup.

Over the course of my lifetime it has always been our greatest summer festival, made even more special in occurring just once every four years. It complemented the domestic football season rather than interrupted it, as this one has done.

As Celtic emerged from their intense autumn football spell of here games a week with a nine-point lead in the title race I could have seen Qatar 2022 far enough. Yet again Scotland hadn’t qualified and we were being made to endure a five-week gap in the season just as the Hoops were hitting cruise control.

But it’s been a splendid World Cup, perhaps the best since Spain in 1982. It’s been brilliant to watch so many so-called lesser nations defying the odds by defeating far mightier opponents.

And it’s been thrilling, too, watching Josip Juranovic, Aaron Mooy and Daizen Maeda excel against the very best teams in the world. Each of these players has delivered man-of-the match performances in the most testing football crucibles.

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For Mooy and Maeda – both of whom will have crucial roles in Celtic’s bid for a record-breaking number of trebles – it’s been the best possible way of keeping match-fit and competitive. They have been acclimatising to Scottish football as well as getting to grips with the way Ange Postecoglou’s side play.

For reasons which escape me, both of these players have been subject occasionally to some harsh and undeserved criticism but their performances in Qatar will have provided them with the best possible confidence boost. Neither of them have anything to prove about their ability.

And if Juranovic is destined to leave (with best wishes) Celtic will surely get an extra £5million or so for his signature.

Yet, just as important has been the opportunity the break has given Celtic to fine-tune their game and iron out any wrinkles in environments such as Australia and Portugal unhindered by inclement weather or the requirement for Postecoglou to answer the infantile queries of the Scottish football press lobby.

2019 and all that

The atmosphere of peace and tranquillity around Parkhead is in stark contrast to December 2019.

This was when it first became apparent that, despite being on course to win a fourth successive treble, things weren’t perhaps as they should be on Kerrydale Street.

This was most evident during the 2019 League Cup final when Celtic were more than a little fortunate to defeat Rangers 1-0. Over the last few weeks footage of this game has appeared on social media along with those trite wise-after-the-event pronouncements that the lacklustre display was a sign of trouble ahead. But I’m not having it.

That game was glorious. I’ve attended many games against Rangers when Celtic didn’t get what they deserved and it was only a matter of time before Steven Gerrard started to get a tune out of his players after a couple of years which were characterised by five-goal and four-goal thumpings.

And besides, the Hoops went into that game without a recognised striker and with a makeshift midfield. They played a third of the game with 10 men. It will always be on my list of most memorable derby victories.

Celtic’s troubles during the Covid lockdown had little to do with Neil Lennon losing the plot or the dressing room and everything to do with boardroom interference in his team-building plans. These included the forced sale of some players and acquisition of others without the manager’s endorsement.

Let’s not allow what came afterwards to spoil the memories of one of the most satisfying cup final wins against Rangers.

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Aberdeen away-days

After the World Cup break we couldn’t have asked for a much better fixture to get the juices flowing than Aberdeen away.

Along with Tynecastle, the brilliant Pittodrie is one of my favourite away-day destinations.

I think this owed much to some bitter experiences during the early 1980s when Celtic wins in the north-east were very hard to come by against the best XI in Aberdeen’s history.

More often than not they’d get skelped and by three and four goals. But the weekend outings themselves, involving rather lengthy pre-match drinking sessions at The Grill or the Prince of Wales, were always special.

Perhaps my favourite Pittodrie memory was of a 2-1 midweek win in 1987, courtesy of Frank McAvennie’s late winner. It was Celtic’s first win up there for a few years and told us that Billy McNeill’s men had the strength and character to win the double in the centenary season.

The financial realities of football have meant that Aberdeen have been left in the slipstream of Celtic and Rangers but they remain a great club and more than capable of making it tough for the Hoops at Pittodrie. Any margin of victory there will always be welcome.