domestic dominance lays path towards next season's champions league

Even allowing for the dismal state of Scottish football at the moment, Celtic's SPL campaign this season is turning out to be, as the MON himself might say, quite extraordinary. An unprecedented 20 league victories in succession, only two points dropped since hostilities resumed in August, a miserly eight goals conceded and a goal difference normally associated with teams in the NBA.

The aforementioned league run includes the most recent Old Firm game which, despite cautiously optimistic noises emanating from Mordor, turned out to be as one-sided as... well, the last one really.

Having had to deal with one serious goal attempt in the last 180 minutes of Old Firm football it's little wonder that Bobo Balde is of the opinion that playing the Huns is no more of a test of the Celtic defence that playing Hearts - and that's saying something.

The Hoops' 3:0 win over the denizens of the Death Star might not have guaranteed the league, and hence another crack at the group stage of the Champions League, but if the Teds can overhaul the 11 point lead that Celtic have established in the remaining 17 games of the season then it will be the best comeback since the deceased Mr. Lazarus emerged from his sepulchral scratcher clawing his arse and demanding a coffee, a fag and the morning paper.

The transfer window was flung wide open again at the start of January but the curtains at the Walfrid have barely fluttered in the breeze such has been the lack of activity.

Guppy has gone and Petta is off to Fulham on loan until the end of the season, forcing all those Bobby Petta No 1 supporters clubs to change their names, but Stephen Pearson has passed them in the revolving door. He'll need some time to settle in, of course, but I know which of those three I'd rather see at Celtic Park.

The rumour mill has been churning out the usual plethora of players linked with a move to Celtic but the noises coming out of the boardroom would seem to suggest that the manager getting some serious cash to splash is about as likely as Nuno Capucho being invited along as the guest of honour at the Larkhall Loyal player of the year goat sacrifice and dinner dance.

The big transfer story is the one which won't happen until the summer. Despite appearing in print reassuring anyone who pays attention to such things that he was happy to stay at Celtic, Liam Miller, it appears, was busily negotiating a pre-contract agreement with Manchester United at the same time. There's more space devoted to the Millergate affair elsewhere in this issue but when the dust finally settles it might all turn out to be a lot of fuss about not too much.

We're not talking about a regular first team performer here, Miller is a 23 year old who has played less than 20 games for Celtic in 6 years. Celtic have won 19 successive games in the league (20 if we beat Aberdeen on Saturday) and Miller has only started 11 of them. He played no part in the team getting to last season's UEFA Cup Final. We're hardly losing the linchpin of the team, the cog around which everything else revolves.

True, supporters of Miller can point to two impressive performances in home Championship League games against Anderlecht and Lyon as evidence of what he can offer. However for every good game he has played there have been others where he was found sadly lacking, for example the away game against Lyon in the Champions League - where he looked and played like a wee lost bhoy - and his performance (using the term loosely) in the League Cup at Easter Road. Most of the young Hibs players that night looked to have far more potential than Miller.

Much of the negative comment about Miller leaving seems to be coming from that element within the Laptop Loyal who, in light of Rangers failings, are determined to find any excuse to criticise Celtic. If the rumours about how much money Celtic offered Miller to stay are true then I'm not alone in being kinda thankful he is leaving for Manchester. I fully support the efforts of players to get the best deal they can. However at a time when money within the game is noticeable by its absence, it would hardly seem prudent to put Miller on a long term contract whereby he earns more in a week than most of us do in a year, especially, as given his injury record, he is likely to spend more time in the treatment room than on the pitch. Given his record of injuries he is hardly the player that Martin O'Neill could confidently rely on to build a new team around. If Miller was more interested in his career than in boosting his earnings he would have elected to sign on at Celtic for another few years. It's just too hard to credit somebody turning their back on the adulation of 60,000 supporters in a packed stadium every other week, not to mention regular European football - assuming that he was able to find the level of consistency required to make himself an automatic first team pick - in favour of the Manchester United stiffs.

He might prove us all wrong but it's hard to envisage a fringe player at Celtic like Miller suddenly becoming a regular in the Man Utd first team. Apart from Carling Cup and friendly games he may find first team starts at Old Trafford to be as infrequent as they were at Celtic Park. At a reported £25k per week - with no need to work at weekends - he has certainly secured his financial future. He'll doubtless have plenty of time as a Man Utd substitute to ponder on how best to spend his new found wealth.

The month ended with an unseemly spat between Martin O'Neill and Hearts manager Craig Levein with the point at issue being whether John Hartson stuck an elbow on Andy Webster. It is an issue which could, and probably should, have been left to slip away in light of the events of Sunday 18th. Other than Ibrox, Tynecastle has arguably been the next worst ground in Scotland to visit due to the hostility of the locals. Two Celtic fans were identified as having spat at the Hearts goalkeeper and were immediately banned by the club indefinitely. One of the guys involved at least had the decency to come forward and take his medicine.

By contrast, Hearts have been somewhat reticent over the fate of the loonies who were throwing coins at Rab Douglas or the other 20-odd people ejected from the ground that afternoon for an assortment of misdemeanours. For all their pious cant they will have to take proper retributive action against their own culprits and show an example if they want to be taken seriously on issues of crowd safety - not to mention the safety of the players - and stadium disorder. Leaving aside the reactions to the incidents of both clubs, with a Scottish Cup tie coming up in February you would have thought that the last thing we needed to crank it up would be this needless media circus. We can only hope that the match passes off without incident.

Apart from the romance of the Scottish Cup, February also sees the return of the UEFA and ... ahem ... a glamour tie against Teplice from the Czech Republic. Having been reliably informed by perhaps the most parochial press on the planet that our next European opponents are so financially pratted that they're having to sell all their best players and will consequently be little more than a bye to the next round, expect a more than decent outfit who will most probably give us a real run for our money.

It might not be the Champions League but it's still better than tuning in to the goings on at Sun Hill police station on a Thursday night.

MANFRED LURKER