No need for paranoia when the enemies are within

The by now infamous revelation that a fan called “Burnsy” chose to offer Celtic data, private photographs and a personal letter to Scott Brown should be viewed with the utmost seriousness by Celtic and the fans.

Yes, the person who supplied the information will almost certainly be sacked. After all, there are at least three kinds of information and there can’t be that many people who could access Gordon Strachan’s computer (presumably the source of the player data), apparently rifle through Scott Brown’s personal effects, get hold of photos AND access the dressing room. Perhaps, of course, the letter, photos and computer data were all stored together.

While I doubt that Brown feels too much of his private life has been exposed with the “well-done” letter, almost everyone feels aggrieved when they find their correspondence has been read by other people without permission and he deserved better.

But for “Burnsy” and two Celtic sites to offer analytical data on the players beggars belief.

This is information that previously only Celtic held about their players and can be used by competitors – try Rangers and Barcelona for starters. It costs thousands of pounds to assemble and is the sort of information any coach could use to mark players more effectively, or develop tactics to exploit weaknesses.

For example, if the data revealed that two right-sided players covered significantly less ground in the last half hour of a game, an opposing coach could use this to plan for the introduction of a winger just as he knows for a fact that the two players will start to struggle. That’s just a simplistic example – there are hundreds of other possibilities.

And there should be some extremely worried people around Celtic cyber-space today.

See, what these supposedly Celtic-supporting morons failed to realise is that in procuring and publishing private professional data they have taken part in industrial espionage, which could potentially lead to a jail sentence. Right now Celtic will almost certainly be using the services of top specialists in this area and the identities of all concerned will be discovered.

The best thing these people could do would be to throw themselves on the club’s mercy and stay away from Celtic for the rest of their days. Oh yes, and hope that Celtic don’t suffer narrow defeats to Barca or Rangers!

Sunbeds and hair gel made Keith Jackson lose grip

Credibility is never valued currency with tabloid sports journalism. Responsible reporting is even lower down the list. So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised at the depths to which Keith Jackson has sunk in order to land an "exclusive" for the Daily Record.

The fact that this Friday exclusive story, claiming Maciej Zurawski "last night claimed his life at Celtic was so miserable it was making him mentally ill" was first published on Wednesday, suggests either Jackson has lost a few days or is lying to his editor and readers.

But it's one thing having a dig at Celtic to get a rise out of fans - trivialising mental ill-health is quite another. In fairness to Jackson anyone who continually presents himself as a mixture of an uneven shade of beige, bleach, bling and Brylcreem is more to be pitied than castigated.

But when presenting a story that is so wrong on so many levels, you might well ask who really has the psychological issues.

Do they mean us - Shakhtar reaction from the other side

Opinion on Celtic’s UEFA Champions League Group stage opening game is fairly solid that the team were thoroughly outplayed. Here are a few snippets from Ukraine journalists.

Eduard Kiselyov, The Sport Arena:

Shakhtar turned out to be considerably stronger. Gordon Strachan and his side were shocked not only by the two quick goals, but mostly by the level of Shakhtar’s performance. They definitely were not ready for that. Shakhtar exceeded all their expectations. They couldn’t have guessed that there was such a strong team on the outskirts of Europe. Mircea Lucescu’s team did their job perfectly well. The two goals knocked the Celts down and allowed Shakhtar play their game. What impressed me most, was the Miner’s confidence with which they defeated the Scottish league leaders.

Mykhailo Metreveli, The Futbol v Litsah magazine:

Shakhtar delivered a high-quality performance. During first 20 minutes they were totally dominating the game. Our team were very aggressive in their attacks. With two quick goals Shakhtar secured their success. As to my mind, all the players looked very good. But still, I would like to mention Fernandinho. I think he has potential.

But Shakhtar had problems in that match too. Celtic, being pressed down, managed to create a couple of goal opportunities. It was a miracle the ball didn’t cross the goal line in one of the episodes. So, it crucial for the team to learn to remain concentrated all through the match. But all in all I enjoyed this match I think Shakhtar are able to preserve the first pace in the Group and advance to the next stage.

Dmytro Korotkov, The Segodnya:

Most of all I liked two things in that match: first, Shakhtar managed to make Celtic play under their rules, and second, the Donetsk players looked much better in terms of individual skills. And the fact that Celtic were unable to push forward and switch from defence to attack made Shakhtar’s task even easier.

But this match also showed Shakhtar’s weak points. First of all the team are emotionally unstable: they seemed to be surprised at their own success and gave up the initiative for some time.

Celtic aren’t the strongest squad in Group D. It means Shakhtar will have to make efforts to keep the leadership.