Rumour Mill: Celtic fans protest

Celtic's Virgil Van Dijk shows his disappointment. Picture: John Devlin

Celtic fans protested outside the ground last night after the defeat to the Maribor

Furious Celtic fans protested outside of the ground last night after their shock 1-0 loss to Maribor in their Champions League qualifier. Around 200 fans protested outside the main door after full time and chanted ‘sack the board’ as they turned their anger on chief executive Peter Lawell and his cohorts. Mounted police soon dispersed them.

Ronny Deila admits Celtic were out of their league

Ronny Deila admitted his side don’t belong in the Champions League after the result last night. He said: “Of course it is disappointing, this is the feeling I have to take with me. So do the players, the whole staff, the whole club - there are no excuses. But this is the level it is. We haven’t deserved to be in the Champions League. We have to start building now so we hopefully can stand in the same position next year with a whole other feeling than I have right now. I think we are better now than we were against Legia. But it’s a long way to talk about playing at Champions League level. We are not good enough and now it’s the Europa League and we are going to do everything we can now to achieve good things there.” (Record)

Ally McCoist admits Rangers will need to shape up to beat Caley

A Kris Boyd double either side of Tony Quinn’s equaliser saw Rangers go through to face Caley Thistle in the League cup. Boyd scored an early opener from a Nicky Clark cross, however Quinn took advantage of a mistake by Rangers keeper Steve Simonsen to level the score. Boyd took just seven minutes into the restart to pounce on a Peralta cross to secure the win against Queen’s Park. Ally McCoist now says his team will have to shape up if they have any chance of beating Inverness Caley Thistle who they face in the next round, he said: “It’s a home tie against the in-form team in the country. They are top of the league for a reason and haven’t lost a goal yet. They are playing well. John Hughes likes his side to play but they have a bit of steel about them. We will certainly need to have a lot more discipline about our game against them but the main thing is we have a chance.” (Various)

Manchester United hammered 4-0 by MK Dons

Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal last night admitted it will take him more than a year to turn around the fortunes of the Old Trafford side. Van Gaal was left stunned as United suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in their history to crash out of the Capital One Cup. The Dutchman said: “We are building up a team and you cannot make it in one month, not in one year. It’s very disappointing but I hope they shall maintain their confidence in the club and in our philosophy because that philosophy takes time. Di Maria can contribute but we don’t expect that tomorrow, the world has changed.” MK Dons boss Karl Robinson said: “The scoreline is ridiculous, it’s something that dreams are made of for these players.”

Meanwhile the club have secured Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid for a British record fee of £60 million. The Argentina star said: “I’m delighted. There were a lot of clubs interested in me but Manchester United is the only club I would leave Real Madrid for.”

(Record)

News in Brief:

• Samuel Eto’o has signed for Everton on a two year deal. The 33-year-old, released by Chelsea, was linked with Liverpool before they signed Mario Balotelli. (Express)

• Legia Warsaw last night took a dig at Celtic after their loss to Maribor by tweeting “#footballwon”. (Various)

• Bobby Williamson takes charge of his first game as manager of Kenya on Saturday for the friendly with Egypt. (Sun)

• Conor McGrandles could be set for a stunning switch to Norwich. (Sun)

• Marvin Andrews has signed for Elgin City. (Sun)

• Former Celtic striker Cillian Sheridan was celebrating last night as he scored the final goal in APOEL’s rout of Aalborg, which saw them progress to the Champions League group stages. (Record)

Rumour Mill: Celtic fans protest | Ronny Deila