SUNDAY CELTIC

CURRENT CELTIC TEAM

Jonothan Gould was signed as short term cover for Stewart Kerr at the beginning of the 1997/8 season. Celtic were adamant at the time that there was no scope for a long term deal, however he has rapidly established himself as a critical part of the Celtic first team. Gould's career has flourished at Celtic Park, he was a member of Craig Brown's World Cup '98 squad and is now Scotland's no 2 keeper behind Wimbledon's Neil Sullivan. His only weakness is the high cross which he occasionally struggles with.

JONOTHAN GOULD

Stewart Kerr has been plagued with bad luck over the past two years. Gordon Marshall's departure to Kilmarnock should have been his chance to become Celtic's number 1 keeper, however a number of injuries have made that impossible and now with Jonothan Gould established in the top spot it appears Stewart may have to move elsewhere to find first team football. Stewart is a very talented keeper who was on the verge of breaking through into the international team and has to be amongst the best keepers sitting on the bench anywhere in Britain.

STEWART KERR

Tom Boyd was signed from Chelsea in a swap deal involving Tony Cascarino, probably one of the finest bits of business in the pre-McCann era ! Tom Boyd took over the captaincy after the retirement of Paul McStay. Has recently lost popularity with some sections of Celtic support who feel his best days are past and are unhappy with his leadership of the bonuses dispute.

TOM BOYD

Stephane Mahe was a part of Wim Jansen's initial restructuring of the Celtic squad at the begining of the 97/98 season. A wing back that has quickly become popular at Celtic Park.

STEPHANE MAHE

Jackie McNamara is one of the rising young stars of Scottish football, he was signed from Dunfermeline by Tommy Burns and has become one of the major creative forces in the Celtic team. Jackie's biggest weakness is that he has become somewhat injury prone due to a recurring knee problem. He is the sort of player who probably would not be valued that highly in the transfer market but is a player I for one think would be very difficult to replace.

JACKIE MCNAMARA

Celtic's record signing from Bolton Wanderers, at first Alan struggled to settle and performed badly. However the arrival of Marc Reiper and the understanding they have has seen Alan Stubbs emerge as one of the top centtral defenders in Britain. His distribution forward from defence is exceptional, and his composure at the back are assets Celtic will miss if as the media suggests he moves back to England.

ALAN STUBBS

Marc Reiper was a crucial signing for Celtic, not only has he been a consistent performer when fit, he has also had an enormous impact on the form of Alan Stubbs. The understanding this pair had in the 97/98 season was the backbone to Celtic's championship winning success.

MARC REIPER

Enrico Annoni was signed from Roma by Tommy Burns, he became a specialist at man marking Brian Laudrup until the Dane's departure from Ibrox at the end of the 97/98 season. "Rico" is exceptionally popular with the fans but has never managed to establish himself in Celtic's starting XI however his presence on the bench gives both excellent cover and also a fine alternative defensive option.

ENRICO ANNONI

Paul joined Celtic from Champions League winners Borrusia Dortmund half way through the 97/98 season. His spectacular 25 yard strike in the new years day game against Rangers was one I for one shall never forget, and sealed a victory that acted as a springboard for the championship victory.

PAUL LAMBERT

Craig Burley has become one of the most influential players in the Celtic side. After falling out of favour at Chelsea the Scottish internationalist moved to Celtic and his ability to score several goals from Midfield were crucial as Celtic struggled to find an effective forward partnership in the 97/98 season. His absence from the team for four months is a major reason behind Celtic's poor form before christmas.

CRAIG BURLEY

Johan Mjallby made his Celtic debut at Parkhead in the 5-1 thrashing of Rangers. He has provided critical cover for Marc Reiper this season despite the fact he is in fact a midfielder. Mjallby likes to play the game hard and has on occassion found himself on the wrong side of Scottish referees.

JOHAN MJALLBY

Vidar had a slow start at Celtic Park, not helped by the fact he had to play several unfamiliar positions. However the norwegian who played in all his countries World Cup ties in France 98 has found his form since the Winter 99 break and has formed a decent reserve central defence alongside Johan Mjallby. His versatility should prove invaluable to Celtic.

VIDAR RISETH

The media had a field day when Celtic signed a 33 year old for £300,000 however the prudence of this purchase has been clear for all to see. "Lubo" has become the creative engine in the Celtic midfield, his stunning performance against Rangers in October '98 played a huge part in the now legendary 5-1 thrashing.

LUBOMIR MORAVCIK

A very underrated player who has missed all of this season through a cruciate ligament injury. Morten had an outstanding season under Wim Jansen and consequently made into Denmark's World Cup team. He was unfortunate enough to be sent off in for an innocuous looking challenge.

MORTEN WEIGHORST

Clearly the hottest property in Scotland, many think in Britain some are even suggesting Europe. Quite simply Celtic MUST resign Larsson or lose the best player to grace the Parkhead turf since Kenny Dalglish. Larsson was a bargain £650,000 buy from Feyenoord, a Swedish international who must be worth significantly more than £8 million. Celtic may be forced to sell the player who would be out of contract at the end of the 1999/2000 season in order to avoid losing him for nothing. Celtic fans would mourn the loss of such a player and the progress of the club would be severely damaged.

HENRIK LARSSON

At any other club in Britain possibly the world Mark Viduka would be the most contoversial figure in it's history. Thankfully for the Australian internationalist he joins a club with a rich history of controversy a la Mo Johnstone, Di Canio, Van Hooydonk and Cadete to name but a few. Viduka's on-off transfer from Croatia Zagreb took forever to reach agreement, then only days after signing for Celtic he walked out. Celtic have still not paid the full fee and are dispute with Zagreb and FIFA over this. Nonetheless, Viduka has a strong international track record and is expected to have a great impact at Celtic Park.

MARK VIDUKA

Celtic nearly lost one of the brightest products of it's youth policy at the begining of 1999. Had it not been for his love of Celtic Mark would probably have signed a pre-contractual agreement with Arsenal who were very interested in signing him. Burchill has exceptional speed and great touch, he has had little opportunity to show it thus far as he has resided on the bench for almost the whole season, however he has grasped every opportunity and has scored some splendid goals, undoubtedly one of the brightest young hopes in Scotland

MARK BURCHILL

Probably the most unfortunate footballer ever. Harald came to Celtic with a great reputation having displayed his striking prowess on the champions league stage for Rosenborg. However Lady Luck has by-passed Harald, in his first old firm game Goram pulled of some magnificent saves to deny the Norwegian the perfect start to his career. His positioning, reading of the game are exceptional however his first touch often lets him down which combined with the aforementioned ill-fortune and poor finishing has lead to the player losing almost all his confidence. Generally these days the biggest cheer Harald gets is when he leaves the field of play or from the opposition's support when coming on, an unfortunate state of affairs for a player I still beleive could do a job for Celtic

HARALD BRATTBAKK

Regi Blinker like several other players has had to deal with long term injury problems. Regi has been going through something of a purple patch recently with a string of influential performances which are begining to be noticed by the Celtic faithful.

REGI BLINKER

Simon Donnelly has been a frustrating player at Celtic Park, just when it appears that he is going to fulfill the potential he obviously has he slips back into mediocrity. It is this tendancy to be inconsistent in combination with alleged excessive pay demands have lead to "SID" being allowed to leave on a Bosman at the end of this season. A number of teams including Everton and Sheffield Wednesday have expressed an interest, it remains to be seen where Simon's future lies.

SIMON DONNELLY