Celtc swoop - well swish - erm maybe hover about a bit looking interested

Diligence is good. Care is essential. To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail.

But, oh how tedious it is watching Celtic trudge through the transfer market.

Today the latest in a long line of left-backs has been mentioned, after Kadlec, Bridge, Naysmith and Petkov – probably a few others too. Lee Naylor from Wolves has apparently been the subject of “official interest” and Mick McCarthy has responded: “I would expect interest because Lee is a good player … but the other side of the coin is that he's only got one year left on his current contract."

That, of course, is manager speak for: “make us a decent offer and he’s yours”. And right now most Celtic fans would probably go for digging up one of Saddam’s defence team if it plugged a hole at left back and allowed Mark Wilson to move to where he belongs on the right.

But this whole practice is become incredibly boring. I admire Strachan’s thoroughness in researching alternative targets. I sympathise with anyone trying to compete with others who have far greater budgets and I respect Lawell’s insistence on not being pushed around. But, for the fans, sometimes it would be nice to just see the business getting done rather than wading through weeks of misinformed news.

So much for the wisdom of a guy who thought Chelsea would gub his team last night. We’ll take a 1-1 draw against the English champions in these times. Bring on Europe’s finest!

And, hopefully, with more cash. Sure, I buy into the idea that we should support other Scottish clubs, in principle. In practice, I subscribe to the other traditional stance – laughing at them while hoping AEK finish the job and provide Celtic with additional funds (in getting the full Scottish share of TV revenues) so that we can go watch players flood in at Christmas like so much molasses.