Bhoys Kick-Off The Season With Lackluster Win At Home

Celtic 1 St. Mirren 0

By Tony Quinn

Barry Robson's penalty got the Bhoys off to a winning start on Flag Day at Paradise in the defense of their SPL title with a 1-0 victory against St Mirren. Before kick-off, Rosemary Burns, widow of former Hoops player, manager and coach Tommy Burns, who died in May from cancer at the age of 51, performed the championship flag raising ceremony, accompanied by chairman John Reid and skipper Stephen McManus.

The game itself was a dour affair with some early season rustiness still showing in some of Gordon Strachan's players. On the hour mark, Will Haining was adjudged by referee Eddie Smith to have fouled Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink inside the box.

After the Saints defender was shown a red card, Robson scuffed the spot-kick against Mark Howard and then thankfully watched it bounce over the line before the Love Street keeper could recover.

After the game Gordon Strachan was fairly happy with the win. "Since I came here I've had four opening games to the season and that's the least effective and least enjoyable. I thought everything was low key today, the crowd, performance, everything, but at the end of the season it might be an important result."

The 60,000 fans inside the stadium were also introduced to their newest recruit, Spanish midfielder Marc Crosas, who signed on a four-year deal from Barcelona. The 20-year-old has been linked with a move to Parkhead for much of the summer but the transfer was finally sealed last weekend. He will cost an initial £415,000, rising to £1.6million depending on appearances.

Chief executive Peter Lawwell said: "We'd have taken Ricardo Quaresma and Javier Saviola but they both decided not to come. We've always thought this formula could be successful, so we've looked at Crosas." Lawwell added. "A young or fringe Barcelona player could come here, play in our first team, play in front of 60,000 and in Europe and develop as a player. Both clubs could benefit."

Barcelona star Xavi reckons Crosas is that good he'll be back at the Camp Nou in the future. "I am sure Marc Crosas will be a star at Celtic," Xavi said. "The kid has the quality to achieve major success abroad. Barca have many players in midfield and that makes it tough for the young players, but I believe that he will return to the club after a big year at Celtic. This is a kid with a winning mentality and great control of the ball. Crosas has perfect vision and an offensive game and he creates many chances for the strikers. I believe that Celtic have closed a perfect piece of business."

Shunsuke Nakamura is now back in full training following his summer hernia operation, and he will come into contention if he shows no reaction to this week's work.

Gordon Strachan says the restrictions that British clubs face in relation to getting work permits for new players hamper recruitment. Under current regulations British clubs are restricted to players who are from nations in Fifa's top 70 ranked teams who have played over 75 percent of their country's internationals in the last two years.

Other nations in Europe do not have such strict restrictions. "Because of the work permits situation there's a huge difference between who we can sign and who others can get," he said.

"Eindhoven can sign Romario and Ronaldo as kids, we can't. These players generate money as well. Both of them left the club for about £18million. The market is smaller for us than the likes of Eindhoven, Porto, Belgian clubs, French clubs. That's why we're sometimes forced to go and pay money elsewhere."

He continued: "We have a list of players from Ecuador, Honduras, you name it, but we can't get them in. You'd need to change British law to alter that. That's why there are constraints on us, and it's about time people learned there are constraints on us."