Kris Commons

Nice article about Kris, seems a real nice and humble guy.
i'm just gonna paste it all as I know a lot of folk don't wanna click on daily mail, the hun, the record ect so bare with this long post!

For Kris Commons life in Mansfield was a basic affair. Living standards matched the low expectation levels of the disaffected local youths. Boredom was never compulsory, but came with the territory.
Commons kept his nose clean by playing football. He was known best, however, as the kid brother of Spencer; the Notts County youth star expected to excel in the professional game.
Nottinghamshire in the mid 90s was a world away from the nerveless spot kick which propelled Celtic into the last 16 of European football’s greatest competition and a £30million windfall. By his own admission, the role of Champions League hero was never one Kris Commons saw himself filling.

'My family is pretty poor and I come from a relatively rough area,' he reflected yesterday. 'I was playing for average little teams when I was a young kid.
'When my brother Spencer sees me on television, he can’t believe he’s seeing me in the Champions League.
'And I’m scoring to get Celtic into the last 16… It just seems surreal for me because I feel like I don’t really belong there.'
There were no signs of inferiority, no traces of self doubt as he stood over the ball in the 80th minute of a tense, nervous win over Spartak Moscow.
His calm and composure was based on an entirely false premise.
After 54 minutes of a terse night, the word spread around Celtic Park that Barcelona had scored.

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Neil Lennon’s team knew they had to better Benfica’s result at the Nou Camp. A large section of the crowd leapt to their feet as the misinformation spread. Crucially in this internet 4G age, Celtic’s players bought it.
Confronted by the giant and impressive figure of Sergei Pesyakov, Commons debated where to put his spot kick. In his head, however, he was composed because Barcelona were beating Benfica. The Celtic crowd told him so.
'I had no idea that Barcelona were drawing. We got the impression they were winning.
'All the crowd were standing up and cheering and we were looking around at each other thinking "they must have scored".

'I put the ball down and I wasn’t thinking "this is to take us into the last 16".
'I was just thinking "put your foot through it, you’ve done it a million times in training, straight down the middle, nice and high away from his feet and we’ll win 2-1 and hopefully Barcelona will do us a favour".

'I suppose it’s the sort of stuff you dream about as a boy. It’s one thing to do it on a park or in training, and another thing to do it in a game when there is something at stake. That is completely different. But I just thought it was a normal penalty.'
Celtic have had their problems from the penalty spot of late; a fact reflected in the inability of manager Neil Lennon or coach Garry Parker to watch.
Both men turned their backs to the pitch as Commons smashed his kick high. A mite too close to the crossbar for some.
'I said to the boys this morning that when I put the ball down I didn’t know whether to go to the keeper’s left or smash it down the middle.
'I actually took a step on the way to the run up and thought about watching to see if he dived early and dinking it, but on my second step I just smashed it.'
Commons had been here before. As a Nottingham Forest player on the final day of 2007-08 he scored the second goal in a 3-2 win over Yeovil.
Forest needed Cheltenham to beat Doncaster the same day. They did. With a last minute winner.

'I had been in a game when we had to win and we were waiting on another result going our way and that was a similar sort of position. The club we were waiting on to score got a goal so our stadium was buzzing, and then we scored so you think everything is going your way and you get into a comfort zone.
'But I saw Lassad coming on and I thought ‘that’s a strange sort of substitution if we don’t need to win’ and the gaffer came on to the touchline geeing us up. I thought to myself "why’s he doing that?"'
It all became clear in the treatment room. Commons was stretchered off with a severely swollen dead leg following a red card challenge from Kim Kallstrom in the final minutes, posting the evidence on Twitter later.
'After the impact I thought ‘that’s quite sore. And then when I looked it seemed bad. The physio Tim Wilkinson didn’t do me any favours when he ran on and yelled ‘yeah, he’s finished - get a stretcher!’
'Kelvin Wilson came over to me and said ‘can you run it off?’ Then he looked at it and said, ‘Oh *, maybe not."'
A scan is expected to confirm no long-term damage. Commons will miss tomorrow’s trip to Kilmarnock but expects to play his part in the knock-out round of the Champions League in mid-February.
Sometime before then he just might pinch himself.

'It’s weird for me,' he smiles. 'I do laugh and joke with Kelvin Wilson. We were in League One playing at Cheltenham and Leyton Orient trying to get Forest promoted and get them back to a level that was respectable.
'You go to these places and play on cabbage patches in front of 3000 fans. That’s only five or six years ago and now we’re part of the 16 elite clubs in Europe.
'We’re not just making up the numbers either. We’re playing well and scoring goals.
'When you are a young kid down south, you want to play in the FA Cup final or for the top clubs in England like the Manchester Uniteds. Liverpools or Arsenals.
'You start to realise that you’re a decent player but you’re in League One with Nottingham Forest, or the Championship once we got promotion.
'When you’re mid-table in the Championship, you just think you’re a decent player, like most players in the Championship.
'For me, playing at this level has opened up my eyes that I am capable of playing at this level and mixing it with these players.'

Commons has learned to appreciate every minute. He saw at first hand how quickly, how cruelly, professional football can slip through a teenager’s clutches. He witnessed it first hand when Spencer, his brother, was a Notts County youth player one minute, an injured statistic the next.
'Spencer is a sparky now. He played football and was in the same side as Kelvin Wilson but he broke his ankle - and dislocated it at the same time - so that was him finished.
'I sort of owe him a lot. People used to say to me "your kid’s better than you" so when I play now there’s something that I feel that I am doing it for both of us.'
'He was only 16 when he did it. He was breaking into the first team at Notts County at the time with Kelvin, and big Kelvin always said he was a top player, never pulled out of a tackle - and that was probably his downfall; he didn’t pull out of that tackle and got his ankle snapped.

'That was him finished, done. He went from being a young kid breaking into the first team at Notts County to fixing light fittings.
'He comes and fixes my lights all the time now. I have to keep him sweet. He came up for the Barca game and travelled to Barcelona for the away game - but he was up at five in the morning yesterday working at the Co-op.'
There is another glance at the bandage on his swollen thigh, the scars of Champions League war. But no trace of complaint.
Kris Commons, more than anyone, appreciates just how far he has travelled in the last three months.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2244342/Kris-Commons-come-long-way-Celtic.html
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i like how him and big kelvin seem good mates. that sort of thing can only help the team. that seems a problem with teams like chelsea, nobody seems to actually like each other

 

Kris Commons got into the official Champions League team of the week,another Bhoy to do so in this campaign.
Thats Forster,Ambrose,Wanyama,Samaras and now Commons.I think?

Edit: No Sammy.

 

Over the Group stage;

Matchday 1 - Nobody
Matchday 2 - Nobody
Matchday 3 - Forster, Ambrose
Matchday 4 - Forster, Wanyama
Matchday 5 - Nobody
Matchday 6 - Commons

 

That's a really nice article about Commons

 

Kris Commons ‏<s>@</s>kcommons15 This is the leg today.......bruising starting to come out.

 

* outline of kallstroms stud on it!

 

He was great in that game, suprised me too as I thought he would have struggled and wanted Lassad to start instead. But he held the ball well and was motm, only a few times he could have released Lustig quicker.

 

His leg is as white and as baldy as mine

 

Commons hoping for Man utd
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/20635316#asset

 

Same here mate.

 

On a non-football note, looks like Commons baby #3 is on the way.

 

Kris Commons ‏<s>@</s>kcommons15 Another boy to welcome to the world! Absolutely delighted. 7lb 14oz. No name yet... Both <s>@</s>lisahague and baby doing well http://lockerz.com/s/271067665

 

Congratulations Kris

 

They've named him Jax.

 

Congrats

 

Congrats kris but oh *. I think jax means "why" in gaelic.

 

I think it's a rule if you're famous that you get to name your kid any name, not matter how ridiculous. Apple, Harper Seven, Vivien Lake etc spring to mind.