Dons did not suit Malmo’s Arnason

FORMER Aberdeen star Kari Arnason admits he used to get frustrated when the Pittodrie club insisted the players wore a suit when they were travelling to Celtic Park on match duty.

According to the Icelandic defender, t he Dons were literally shooting themselves in t he f oot by showing t he Parkhead giants too much respect before the match had even started.

It is a mistake he insists won’t be made by he and his Malmo team-mates when they head for the east end of Glasgow on Wednesday night, looking to register a crucial victory in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

‘I’ll tell you what frustrated me the most about going to Parkhead,’ said 32-year- old Arnason, who spent a season in the Granite City in 2011. ‘For every other away game, the players at Aberdeen would wear a tracksuit and a t-shirt to the match.

‘But, whenever we went to play Celtic or Rangers, we had to wear a suit and tie. Stuff like that really annoyed me.

‘I said to them at the time: “What are we doing this for?” We tended to play quite well when we did it but it was just a little thing that bothered me. It wasn’t the right thing to do.

‘I know the reason and, of course, you have to show a bit of respect. But I think that’s showing them a bit too much.

‘I certainly hope that Malmo don’t show them that much respect when we go there on Wednesday evening.’

Arnason ( pictured), who moved from Rotherham United to Malmo i n the summer, wasn’t happy with his new team’s display in Saturday’s 2-0 league win over Gefle and has warned Age Hareide’s men they need to improve against Celtic or face Champions League misery.

‘I’m pretty sure we need to improve on that on Wednesday night,’ he said. ‘But it was to be expected. We’ve played a few games of really high tempo against the likes of Gothenburg, who are the league leaders, and Salzburg before that.

‘I could see a performance like that coming a mile off. It was pretty bad against Gefle. It was far too slow. But I suppose that can happen when you play teams who defend and try to kill the tempo of the game.

‘We need to be better than that.

‘ But I’m not too worried about i ncreasing our l evel against Celtic because we normally do that anyway against the better teams. It’s the poorer teams that we struggle against.

‘Although we didn’t show it on Saturday, we’ve got some good footballers. But we need to keep a high tempo against Celtic. They’ll definitely try to bully us — but there’s no way we can let them do that.

‘The atmosphere at Celtic Park will lift us anyway — but it will lift them as well because their fans will be caning us.’

Arnason has warned Celtic to beware of their exciting young Serbian winger Vladimir Rodic. The midfielder scored on Saturday and is on top form for the Swedish champions.

He said: ‘Rodic can be a huge weapon for us against Celtic. He’s only a young guy but he’s been brilliant for us since he signed here.

‘He’s only 21 but for him to come to Sweden from Serbia and do so well — he has three goals in six games — he has been brilliant and is so quick.’

Arnason, for his part, admits that he cannot wait to return to Parkhead.

‘I honestly feel it’s the best stadium in Britain. I’ve never played at Old Trafford but I’ve been to games there and it’s nothing like Celtic Park. I’m absolutely buzzing for it.

‘When I was playing with Aberdeen, we l ost a game 2-1 there.

‘Obviously, they had a lot of the ball. We didn’t park the bus but we tried to break on them. We were successful once and managed to score, but still ended up losing.’

After t he Gefle g a me, manager Hareide complained about the rules that allowed Celtic to splash out on Scott Allan, but prevented Malmo from adding to their squad because the Swedish transfer window slammed shut last week.

Agreeing with his manager, Arnason said: ‘It’s the Swedish FA who have to change their transfer window system which would allow us to sign players just like Celtic have done.

‘If they want to compete at the highest level in Europe, t hey must do something. It’s their own fault — it’s the Swedish FA who’s

at fault.’