Laporta plays superb asset management game

surely not

I've always thought that that "podium" stuff was childish rubbish, not any more......

Can we sign someone soon, please

ok 3,s too many

The Boss was good last night wasnt he

do were CSN

sorry do should read so

HA HA HA MANSELL, you slow moustachioed buffoon.

got any Quo

I hope we're not being softened up with this talk of asset management?

Absolutely delighted there is no news to report....
No news is good news.
Did you have a word with PG Paul67 ??

Have a great day all

dani californis 5.35 curragh

hail hail

here is a cracking video Of Tommy Burns that i have managed to stick on.

Enjoy.

Tommy Burns : The Player.

Paul67

Guess the shabby suited one has told you who we are selling then?

No bad thing to sell to buy if big tony gets all the cash

Coyle was told he would have to sell two big players I guess tony has
The same orders

Hail hail

Paul67

This is an area celtic clearly need to improve, but it is a difficult balance. There could of been an argument for cashing in on Artur after the Euros, whos star has unquestionably wained since.

Personally i think the signing of Fortune would go totally against that principle, if the numbers quoted are accurate. £3.8m for a player who his club agreed a £1.1m completion fee for in January.

Although i can;t help feel on one hand the CEO/Board should never tell a manager who not to buy under his budget, i feel they also have a duty to oversee good asset management. Gravesen showed any big outlay for players nearing end of career, no matter how proven, is risky.

Paul - as you say its all about "asset management"..I do love the new lingo on how we buy and sell players...or as Jock Brown said "Di Canio has been traded!!!"...really shows that the game is no longer just a game it's business as well.

Any more news on the ESPN front? And more importantly any more news on the Fortune signing...something tells me this one might be one to miss...but I have been proved wrong in the past.

Allgreen 12.55 last thread.

The fast majority are "Huns without the bus fare".

I have always been of the view "your either fur us or agin us".

It didn't rain enough for me.

last post should say vast majority.

Eto'o Brute

I'll miss watching E'too, he was fabulous entertainment, but so too previously was Ronaldinho and Deco and they haven't been missed in the slightest.....both of whom were sold with guardiola's blessing as will E'too be as well

the often overlooked component at Barca is Txiki Beguristein....who is effectively director of football...he makes most of these deals happen

from the previous story....transfer and asset management related, so i think it's relevant
weeronn on June 27, 2009 8:48 PM
By barcabhoy on June 27, 2009 6:49 PM
The Battered Bunnet on June 27, 2009 5:46 PM

"Barca, unless I have missed something (entirely possible), you seem to be implying that the Manager has been overruled by the CEO on Fortune? Do we know this?"

Actually i wasn't inplying that....TBB's post asked the question of who would have the final say in recruiting fortune....

my response was that it should always be the manager, and i went further in that i would give the manager full control over his budget

my view is that any executive, at any club, not just celtic, who overrules the manager on player acquisition, whilst the manager is working within budget, is wrong

gordon's frequent comments about having no budget to work towards, indicate to me that he didnt have the final say on players......how could he if the ceo could merely not get the target on board by refusing to pay the necessary

i'm not advocating a free for all.....i very much want discipline and control in the player acquisition process....my contention is that it should be the manager who exerts the discipline and control, by working within the budget set by the board

the system pre big jock, was that bob kelly effectively bought and sold the players as well as picking the team......the change in success when jock insisted that he be the sole decision maker was instantaneous

this isn't a go at peter lawell....it's a comment on a system....i cannot see what qualification peter lawell has to decide on the value or ability of a football player.....if indeed that is part of his current role.....

if tony mowbray decides simon ferry is going to be an important player for him moving forward and wants him paid 3 times what he gets just now, and that rise is within the budget, then he has to be supported 100%

under no circumstances whatsoever should the ceo be able to say no to that request...in fact it shouldn't be a request it should be an instruction

i fully accept that there will be mistakes made with the manager in full control......but i would contend there would and have been a lot more mistakes made with a CEO, any CEO, in charge of transfer policy

Look at Rangers in the bling period....Murray bought players over the top of the managers wishes...Colin Hendry being the most obvious example

They ended up with a lot of very expensive players who did not enjoy the full confidence of the manager.....it's only my opinion, but i wouldn't be surprised that our transfer structure was the reason we ended up with so many players of decent ability and so few of top class ability

Most of Gordons best buys came in year 1 when a new manager clearly has to be supported......

From last thread

Bournesouperecipe,

As regards conflict of interest. Did Chelsea not play against the Russian team sponsored by Abramovitch's company a couple of season's ago? Conflict of interest?

Philvis..,

The credentials that you listed above would suggest that he would be capable of such action.

I have no smoking gun, just, like the Farry case, evidence of previous skullduggery from "those in positions of authority" where Celtic are involved.

I also believe that UEFA have, for some reason, been less than diligent in addressing the obscenity of Rangers in Europe.

Until all clubs in Europe operate under the same rules of employment, we in Scotland have to be creative in order to level the field.

Barcabhoy, couldn't agree more. But then Lawwell clearly sees himself as being in the same mould as Laporta... and Paul's article suggests he has the final say at Barca...

I think we could be in for another frustrating summer.

thomthethim and allgreen

I'm only going on what i read in the Celtic media, no other source will do.

I'm sure there are other less tangible paralell's like the Chelski, Abramovitch Russian example.
but, and it's a big but, to send out one of your under managers to take over as boss?

It sounded like a great initiative, to good to be true, then if the Taylor factor is indeed a factor the whole thing seems fraught.

to = too

Anyone out there watching the 3rd and 4th play off at the Confed Cup keep an eye on the SA number 12 Modise , SA player of the year for the last 2 years , left sided midfielder, a natural replacement for Nakamura and would,nt cost too much.

€30m is a great price to get for a 28 year old.

I didnt think he had scored against us but in four appearences against us he managed one goal five years ago in our 1-1 draw away to Barcelona.

Tomc 1.42

Any futher info on that?

EN

Paul67

We should break the banko for Janko.He will go for a Kings ransom after a couple of good seasons with us.

The last player we made good money on was Petrov.Before that it was Viduka.
They were full internationals ,but realatively unknown.

He can be a success on and off the park.

Paul67,

Has Gregory Dupont left the club right enough?

Paul: posted this yesterday:

Eto'o will be leaving Barca mainly because they are a club who knows when a player has passed his peak. Similarly, he knows it too and mega bucks from Man City is a fair enough option.

An astute club and an astute player...

Ps - have we bought Janko yet???

I fear it will be quite some time before we can compete with Barca.

These days are gone for the forseeable future,unless we get into a league that matches the TV revenue generated in the EPL.

We no longer have the money to put a team on the park that can emulate MON's results against the mighty Catalans.

WWC

that should read

club believes he has past his peak, they don't have a crystal ball

In reality he has just had his best ever season for Barca so they are unquestionably taking a risk. 30 goals in 34 league starts is a remarkable return

Tiny Tim

Sorry I never got back to you last night..other things to do.
I read your post this morning ...lovely story..good memory. Keep well.

EDB:
Congrats. on your daughter's achievement..I'm looking at a picture of one of my daughters on her " big " day as I type.
Enjoy your day ...take a big wallet !!

Hail Hail guys.

Tim Bucktwo

Cheers

Will do - both!

Paul67 - do you know if 'assest management' is a 'policy' for want of a better word, that Celtic are looking at?

I agree that some people should be sold on when their star has risen far enough but there are players who the club need to keep. Iconic players like Henrik. We don't have any with us presently. I am hoping Broonie will grow in to one. If he learns to shoot he could. So too Aiden McGeady. So much talent, so little ability to kick a ball properly when aiming it at the goal!

Anyways, I better manage my asset off this computer or I will be stripped of my other assests by Mrs Tressel, who, I am told, enjoys my company once in a while.

Toodloo the noo.

PS If anyone is feelign too happy and optimistic today and it is driving others mad, go to E-Tims and read Gaudds latest 'Reasons why Celtic Are Gash and Will Continue to Be so Until they Do what I say' article.

Gaudd, if you read this blog, gie it a rest mate. There are only so many ways you can say the same thing and you have used them all at least 3 times each now. change the record (or shuffle your Ipod if you are of that generation)

Man City will have a good few players up for sale by the way. I wonder if our eyes will be looking towards Eastlands?

I reckon, Benjani, Fernanadez, Onuroa, Evans, Garrido, Ball Petrov, Nery Castillo, possibly Bellamy will be surplus.

West Wales Celt

Whits that ? An astute club ,that's it ,Barca for me .
Haud oan cannae make flight once a fortnight,just hiv to be boring auld Parkheid .

WGS

Castillo is not a Man City player

I don't see anyone being linked with Janko anymore, whereas in January 3 or 4 clubs were stated to have an interest. This suggests to me that the player has decided to stay in Austria for another year, probably made that clear to his agent as we're not hearing any soundbites from him either.

Remember he also signed a new contract in January.

WGS

They are collecting forwards but cant see us matching or bettering the wages of those you mention.

EN

Antsman,

He's Shaktar's isn't he. Was only on loan, i forgot.

WGS - Man City's Petrov would be an excellent buy. I believe he was injured last season but also out of favour when fit??? Having seen him on song I believe he could be a more than decent first team player.

But then I don't sign the cheques!

Call me paranoid but it sounds to me like Paul is softening us up for some "asset management" of our own.....

Boruc, McGeady, Brown???

30m euros....what a piece of business!

now! all that money.....hmmmmmmmm

i just wonder who could really REALLY be doing with a injection of euros into thier club???

who was it again who is supposed to be moving into thier brand spanking new 75000 capacity stadium this year?

who cant because the work has stopped due to 'financial difficulties'?

whos 50,000 capacity auld stadium needs vacated asap?

who needs to get into that 75000capacity stadium asap as they have those season tickets already pre-ordered?

is that valencia?

do they have a striker who in entering his peak years at 27?

a striker who has 87 goals in 129 games for valencia and 31 goals in 49 games for spain...

i can see Mr David Villa at the Nou camp very shortly.

Dubai,

Th'as what iwas thinking. I think it will be out of McDonald, McGeady or Boruc.

Brown will be a mjot part in TM team.

pauloantony

I thought Villa had decided to stay at Valencia, but the wee ticker on the bottom of the screen on the Spain game says Torres wants him to sign for Liverpool.

Hes no Janko but I think we should nip in for him..

EN

Sadly, it looks to me that we are rooked on the player front - even with regard to asset management.

The only way we can make real money out of our 'assets' is if they come through the youth system, and precious few seem capable of that.

Murray seems to have realized some time ago that the only way for Rangers (and by implication Celtic) to attract any decent foreign talent or bosmans is to allow said transfer target to have numerous contract 'get out' clauses and a cut of transfer profits resulting from sell-ons - all a bit 'dodgy' and the asset then becomes less of an asset than first appears.

Even the securing of PLG as manager seems to have involved some kind of dubious arrangement around player recruitment and sell-ons.

So it seems to me that we either have to find some kind of goldmine in youth development or else we need to buy into the Murray model whereby foreign players view Celtic as a very lucrative stopover on their way to 'better' things.
If the latter is the case, then we will be lucky to hold onto someone decent for more than a season - can't see any other way we could sign someone like Janko.

Is this the real model for 'asset management' - pretty bleak if it is.

Surely players at Man City are outwith our budget on salary....I'd look at the relegated teams from the Prem if I was looking...personally if we are going to manage the assets in the future we need to look East for valuf for money. Or even some of the un-tapped or less expolored areas of South America.

EN

re The Parville,
i had breakfast in there tis morning after 10.30 mass, the place was jumping...not bad either...

BT

Blantyretim

Was in yesterday for lunch,menu full of gut busters,but Angels,croft and parkville always full,so give the people what they want.

By the way the crowd was a bit rough for me, ok for you and Jinks
I would imagine.

Blantyretim

I was in Thursday night, also jumping. Ive yet to eat in there but wish they would stop going on about their puddings.

EN

This spain v SA game is rank rotten i'm struggling to stay awak watching it.Spain can't be bothered and SA are a poor side all in all i can wait for the game tonight america have turned it round and are playing with real belief and determination should be an interesting watch specially if brazil play like they did against SA in the last round we could be in for an upset!

Wonder what odd you would have got on the USA winning the tournament after being pumped in the first two games?

MB

Speaking of food...

Armagh jail to be made into luxury 4 star hotel,ex inmate
Bernadette Devlin says"hope food is a bit better now"

dubaibhoy - you're opening a can of worms there!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, softened up or not is there anyone you'd be sad to see leave for the right money?

voguepunter

your pub is rough enough for you ya wee jessie...;0))

my local is the West End to be honest...
EN
They have made it too small for the drinkers by making the eating area as big...

BT

Apologies for the downtime this afternoon. See servers!!!!!

Thank God for that!!!!!!

Roberttressell, Dubaibhoy, it’s been so many years since Celtic have done any decent asset management I doubt they know what it means.

WGS, no info.

Dubai Tim, no heard any more on ESPN.

RyanOD, did not.

Haud oan Paul 67.

Is this a chinese server we have goat here?

Dont sweat it we all love you really.
vp signing off one glass of vino too many.

Paul67

Ive had to read the papers, where do I go for my refund? ;~)

EN

Lads how come nobody is mentioning Niall Mcginn for breaking through this year i thought he was even better than paddy in reserves when i seen him this year and i think he'll improve again whats your opinion on him?

WGS

From earlier, seems that Gregory Dupont has returned to Lille.

No idea why.

Heard anything Paul?

We have a lot of players at our club so who realistically do you think will make the grade after Tony Mowbray has had a chance to look ?
Or are we set to see the same old same old from last year?

Paul67,

The boy i posted last night might be worth a punt with yours and Mr Z Romanian kid Becarji you mentioned last week.

According to Mr Z last night 31 million Euros maybe less could secure him.

I agree with your article last week when you mentioned the markets and areas we might want to take punts in. Slovenia with this guy should be added IMO. Started to look into certain areas after you posted that last week. Very interesting what you find.

By the way, USA in the final tonight. Not seen much of the Confed cup as i was more interested in the Euro Under 21 Tournament, but is Kjestan in that squad by chance? Prices for these guy's will go up now after this tournament mee thinks.

31 million euros should read £ 1 million euros :) :) :)

Paul,

I think the emphasis on (financial) wealth is quite depressing. I hope Eto`o tells Laporta to stuff it (assuming he`s not touting himself for a move or payrise of course!).

I`d question the character of any player who would move from Barca to Man City......... (or indeed Real Madrid - what an appalling individual Robinho is, in my opinion.......)

WGS
Signing off ,too much vino:0)

EDB,

Mail to you,

Let me know if you get it,

Martin.

El Diego,

I read it earlier was wanting clarity before i commented on it.
I wonder what happened. That's another one down. Hopefully, we will get somebody else in. Aiden improved big time under him and i heard that Paddy McCourt was going to being some serious work under him this pre season.

Antsman:
Agreed, but his recent upturn is whats got them the bucks - his form in the medium term was patchy.
Voguepunter:
I couldn't switch to any other club no matter how astute. Nevertheless be nice to see us:
- buying good players
- keeping good players
- selling players rather than letting them run down contracts.

Too many mediocre signings that add nothing to the squad except its size and wage bill...

WGS

Your man is on the bench for tonights game.

EN

West Wales

Dont worry ,I know that just having a bit of fun:)

Zybszek,

http://sport.wp.pl/kat,32282,title,Junior-Diaz-kolega-Boruca-lub-Jelenia,wid,11263305,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=184a3

Estadio,

I'm going to settle down and watch the final tonight.

Just back from Fauldhouse Miners Welfare.
Loads of the villagers are in a state of shock when they heard Elvis had passed away.

WGS

"Man City will have a good few players up for sale by the way. I wonder if our eyes will be looking towards Eastlands?

I reckon, Benjani, Fernanadez, Onuroa, Evans, Garrido, Ball Petrov, Nery Castillo, possibly Bellamy will be surplus."

What do you reckon about Johnson and Caicedo? With Barry, Ireland, De Jong, Johnson will probably struggle for any playing time this season I reckon. I'd put up a list of strikers in front of Caicedo, but dont want RSI.

Free the Man City 2/3/4 perhaps?

Paul

as per my earlier post, do you advocate that we follow the Murray model of asset management whereby you only have the asset for 6 to 12 months and you then have to share any profits with player, agent, manager(?), previous selling club etc. - Boumsong and Cuellar being prime examples.

Is this the only viable model to attract decent foreign players to the SPL - and are Rangers ahead of us in tuning into that reality?

If this is the model, then profits on assets are smaller than may appear and there is little foundation for team building from one season to another.

The only other alternatives would be to promote youth or take risks on buying SPL players or others from inferior leagues - maybe not box office enough to sell season tickets?

Tictical,

I would take Johnston but not Caicedo. Shame for Johnston, his career was taking offf big time under Eriksson and Erisksson would have made him a star, but the money and the Arabian takeover has put his career on hold IMO. He wont get a game for them.

A question to all CQN'rs. If Dbrill Cisse was offered to Celtic and we could afford him, would you take him?

WGS, no I don't think I would. A couple of seasons ago maybe, but I think he's only in it for the money now.

What's your view?

Paul67.

I really thought that the transfer market was starting to show a decline this season,but I couldn't have been more wrong.
What,with the £80m tranfers of Ronaldo and a similar sum for the far better player,Kaka,the transfer market seems as strong as ever.

I like to read the BBC Sports gossip column just to get rummers about Celtic,there's zilch coming out about Celtic,but there's plenty of news regarding big money moves,the transfer market seems to be getting stronger.

Here's some instances.

Arsenal are poised to highjack Man Utd's £25m bid to sign 21year old striker Karim Benzama from Lyon.
Man Utd's Sir Alec Ferguson will step up his efforts to Buy £45m rated Athletico Madrid playmaker,Sergio Aquero,Fergie is also expected to complete the £14m signing of Luis Antonio Valencia.

The guy you mentioned,Samuel Eto'o,Has been snapped up by Man City,who have also signed Carlos Tevas,a snip at £30m.

Chelsea will make a renewed bid of £50m offer for AC Milans Brazilian striker Pato,after an initial £45m bid for the 19year old was rejected.
Chelsea is also about to splash more cash by raising striker Didier Drogba's,midfielder Michael Essian,And Ashley Cole's wages up to £125,000 pw.
Bad news for Joe Cole & Jose Bosinwga,they could be on their way out.
Get this.Chelsea are also set to test Bayern Munich's resolve with a £50 bid for Frenchwinger Frank Ribery.

Talking of Frenchmen.

French fitness coach Gregory Dupont has quit Celtic,to return to Ligue 1 outfit Lille.
That may be a blessing for the Celtic Players,I don't think they could handle the rigorous training schedules,they'd rather be injured than go through the training hell that Dupont put them under.

We, The supporters wonder why we can't compete for players.We need to get a reality check,we are at the bottom of a very large market,A market that we haven't a hope in hell of competing in.

WGS - Yes!

He has everything a striker needs except clinical finishing. I know that sounds a bit daft, but great pace is the biggest differential in modern footy, and Mr Cisse has that x10. He`d be great in SPL, and perfect for away games in Europe too.......

rummers? try rumours?.

Naka,

I'm undecided, however, i think he'd be a better shout that Fortune. The two of them are strikers that are powerful, can hold the ball up, run into channels and have good pace. Cisse, however, can create and score more goals for himself.

I think you might find that in TM system we need a powerful, fast focal point in attack to allow everybody else to play off. Think that's why he's in for Fortune. We have nobody at the moment that can play that role. Maybe Samaras comes the closest, but he's just went off the boil big time since he cam back injured in August.

Still think Fortune link could be a diverson for one the Austrian lad's. Call it a hunch mate.

Cisse. Thats a worry. As was Darren Bent a few seasons ago.

WGS - yes (but with reservations). Mind you he can't be any worse than what we've got!

reservations being I'd rather be signing up and coming than those on the wane.

he signed for Panathinaikos two days ago, that might rule him out.

UC

What´s this Junior Diaz like???
Anybody know???

What don't you like about Felipe Caicedo? I think he could be perfect for us, 6'1" with exceptional physique and good control for a big guy, he'd be great alongside McDonald. Also, he's only 20, so could be "asset managed" in the future.

Has Cisse not just gone to Panathanikos for €6.8M?

EDB,

More mail,

Martin.

OT

correct

we are way down the pecking order

but what should we do ..give up ???

that`s what we appear to have done

the asset management at our club is lamentable

we show no inivation in the transfer market ..apart from buying up cheap/and not so cheap SPL players , some pet Irishmen to keep DD sweet and the odd Hun target ..we are inactive

it`s not all about cash ..we pay more than a significant number of football teams ..we have the lure of being winners ( some years ) and we regularly play in Europe

a vast improvement is needed and now ..FFS Fletcher for £4m ...

has DD got shares in Hibs ???

oldtim67

There's a strong rumour doing the rounds that you'll have a drink next Friday:o)

Oldtim67

Ronaldo is a far more effective and exciting player than Kaka.He scores more goals,has more tricks,is just as fast if not faster,and is a better header of the ball.

They will be something else in the same side however.

after watching samaras and jvoh last season i prob be happy with kenny m back lol , only joking

ElDiegoBhoy.

There's every chance that I will have a wee dram,But there's just as much chance I won't have any drink.

My diabetes is not good at the moment.

I'll see you there,all going well.

West Wales Celt

I would disagree

Etto has been consitent for years

2007-8

18 league starts 16 goals

2006-07

17 league starts 11 goals

2005-06

32 league starts 24 goals

His record is phenomonal

So do the USA have any chance in the Confederations Cup final that's about to start. Presumably not as Paddy Power are offering 7/1?

Haven't seen any of the tournament so far but will be watching tonight's final.

Paul67

It may be time to trade in the Perodua server.

Do you know why Dupont has gone?

Do you know if we are still chasing Janko?

Jobo Baldie

They defended well against Spain, I expect this game to be tight, 1-0 Brazil for me. Lucio with the goal.

EN

EN -

50p on USA for me!

Jobo

Gawn The Nutty Bhoys.....Madness on BBC 4 from Glasto.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

tinytim.

It's all about opinions,I'll accept yours,if you will accept mine.

I rate Ronaldo 100% as a footballer,but I also rate him as a 100% cheating diver,A lot of people can accept that,but I can't.Hence Kaka's a far better player,(in my opinion).

WGS

The law oif probability says you will get one right eventually

"Still think Fortune link could be a diverson for one the Austrian lad's. Call it a hunch mate."

TT,

according to the Sunday Times snippet, it is Dupont himself who has decided to head back to Lille where he had 7 years before coming to us.

No reason given for his decision though.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

we clearly have a problem getting good players to come to the spl. you can argue why that is but its clear that neither celtic or ed's team are able to attract anyone really decent anymore.

so why are people banging on about poor assett management? selling our best players for top dollar is all well and good but if you arent able to find replacements who are as good or better then short of thinking solely about balance sheet (which some people seem to be suggesting is what really floats the boards boat) and not the playing squad i cant see the benefit.

i would have thought that not cashing in on our best players suggests that the board is not just interested in the bottom line.

tinytim; oldtim67,

I think Ronaldo and Kaka are both examples of players who have made the best of their talent. Ronaldinho is a player who is far more capable, but lacks the work ethic the other 2 have to make the best of himself. Before he got the party lifestyle he was just unbelievable, and much more the superstar player than the other two......

oldtim67

Looking forward to seeing your good self and Kojo's bestest ever mate:o)

Like you I intensely dislike Ronaldo. As does Mrs EDB.

He'll not be welcome at my door if he comes a courting.

Well haud on a minute. That wis mibbees OTT.

i should have said, attract anyone with proven pedigree.

Oldtim67

I accept your opinion although i will split a hair in agreeing with it.Ronaldo can be a cheat,i also really dislike that about him.I also think that Kaka may be a much easier human being to manage.

However if money were no object I would buy Ronaldo before any other player in the world including Messi.

I hope your health is good,i am planning on having a wee dram with you on Friday.

EN,

I HATE lucio.

He's another of these 6ft 4inch pansies who canny handle it when a forward has the temerity to actually tackle/challenge him.

Arrogant big rat when things going his way - did you see him with Rossi of Italy when chasing the ball down the wing late in the 2nd half. He almost started to run backwards when and gave Rossi a look of disdain when he realised that Rossi was never getting the ball.

Tw@t!

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

I was on the Man City site last week, they still apear to have season tickets available, starting from £419.

You would think they would be sold out with the team they are assembling. The price looks to be a bit of a good deal.

Jobo

Goal USA, wish I had put 50p on it.

EN

RoscoePCo

I agree with regards his work ethic.He was amazing for a two year period.I fully expect Ronaldp to be the top scorer in LaLiga next season.

I-0 USA Dempsey.

PFayr.

I wouldn't say "give up"but we have to accept our lot.
We couldn't afford a big toe from Ronaldo's foot,it would cost us an arm and a leg,joking apart,I accept that we could maybe buy A £8m player,or a variation of £8m,two at £4,or eight at £1m.

But the days of the likes of Martin O'Neill getting £6m to buy a player are away,it won't happen again.

By the way the £8m I quote is a guess-tim-ation,I haven't a clue what Celtic can afford to put out on players..

The Token Tim

Ive had the games on in the background not really watched too much, I think Lucio is a decent defender.

But, I will join your club, he has just cost me a £5er.

EN

I don't know how good a player Marc-Antoine Fortune is.
I have not seen enough of him to make a reasonable judgement.
Quite frankly, I don't really CARE how good he is.
For me, he has already disqualified himself from being at Celtic.
Any player who is asked to make a choice between Celtic & HULL CITY & takes more than 5 seconds to make up his mind, has already proved that he should not even have been asked in the first place.
If 'for a few dollars more' he would sooner play for an outfit who will NEVER win an honour of any description & who will be in an endless relegation struggle, then that is where he deserves to be.
He is too greedy & too stupid to waste time on.
I would not sign such a person if he was available for NOTHING.
We don't need him.
We don't want him.

EN,

most of the EPL clubs outside London and I include Man Utd and Liverpool in that have season ticket prices not that far outside our own prices in fact have more than 1 or 2 that cost less than my own at Paradise.

I take your point about the non-take up though, when you consider that they could well be about to carry out a Real-esque splurge.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

cisse has just signed for panathoniakos the other day im pretty sure so no chance with that one!

But aye i would take him in heartbeat!
Marseille wanted 15 million from sunderland for him and they said no and there is no way pana would have been able to get that sort of money together.Futher proof the EPL and its players are over inflated.

MB

RoscoPCo.

I also agree about Ronaldinho,When I watched him a couple of years ago,I would sit open mouthed in awe,he was the best at that time,But as you say his head was turned by the money,I think the same could happen to Ronaldo.

I would like to see City do well.Living in the shadow of United like they do,must be murder for their supporters.

On another note i previously posted USA might give Brazil a wee shock looks like i'm off to a good start!

There are a fair few in the USA squad i'd take for the hoops.

Mon the US

MB

Lived in Manchester many years of my life and United are everywhere in all the shops and have laughed at City for years.
Not great the way city are going to be a good team but no less than United have done with the American owners.

Kilbowie Kelt - fair enough, but don`t forget all we know about him and where he`s going is from the tabloid press - tabloid press=liars. The talk may well be nothing to do with him.

TinyTim - I have to admit I really hope Ronaldo is a flop in Spain. Nasty individual, and I dislike the "money can buy success" approach of Real Madrid (and the vanity and petulance of Ronaldo). Xavi and Iniesta anyday for me... :-)

Hail Hail

mattybhoy

This is the first match that i have watched in the tournament.

Has Klejstan played?
If so ,how ell has he done?

If not,he can't be that highly rated.

Just checked pana shelf out 6.8 million pounds for cisse nowhere near what marseille wanted from sunderland.

MB

Kilbowie,

Could he not have been weighing up his options???

Lets face it, he is NOT a Celtic supporter so he has no emotional attachment that we would have and it is possible that he has to make a decsion based as much on finance as trophies.

We can offer him potential SPL medals and CL football with say 15K a week.

HUll can can offer EPL football, fighting relegation (again) and say 25K a week.

I am obviously hypothesising here, but I doubt i am a million miles away.

Thats a hellova difference esp for what can be a relatively short career.
I can understand a player, any player, making the choice to go for the money.

Wouldn't be my choice, but as I say, Fortune doesn't have any emotional attachment to us.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Also

The wonder boy Freddy Adu seems to have done an Andy Webster.

Just checked pana shelf out 6.8 million pounds for cisse nowhere near what marseille wanted from sunderland.

MB

USA looking ragged at the moment.They need to weather this wee storm.They are not keeping possession well.

TinyTim

He got himself sent off for them in one of the group games.He is on the bench tonight after suspension so maybe we'll have a chance to see him.He did look decent when he had the ball at his feet infairness when i see him playing earlier in the tournament!

MB

2-0 USA on the counter attack.Amazing

Landon Donovan finishes exceptionally well.

I wish Jonathan Pearce would elbow Mark Bright. Doing me head in.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

2-0 I'm absolutely loving this game!

Great to see a good team beating great individuals!

MB

Asset management is a two-way street. Like, oh I dunno, signing US players before tonight.

Mattybhoy

As the game progresses i expect the USA to tire and Brazil to create more.

As holding midfielder may be what the USA coach introduces later ,instead of a potential match winner.

Bloke_109

You make a very good point.

I am sick of hearing about the so called improvements in our scouting.Yet we can't get further than Easter Road.

TinyTim

One thing that has become clear from this tournament is that the usa are the fittest team in it they run the full game and 3 of they're games they've played out with 10 men!!

People also said this when they took the lead early against spain and the spain comeback never materialised.An the manager to his credit kept the same formation throughout the game not reverting to a 4-5-1.

But i do agree that there will be a brazilian onslaught.Hopefully america can see it out!

MB

Quite a few of the USA team have just not done it at club level.

Jozy Altidore, a £7.5m signing for Villarreal last summer, named alongside Scott Brown and ten others in the Fifa 'Ones to watch in 2009' list. Villarreal swiftly loaned him out to second division Xarez where he failed to make an appearance.

Charlie Davis, went on trail at Ajax, failed and ended up at Hammerby where he managed three goals, now back in the MLS banging in the goals 15 last year.

Landon Donovan disapointing at Leverkusen and last season at Bayern Munich despite starring for his international team. But he might be worth taking a chance on, he is 27.
Also help our profile in USA the way Naka did with Japan, he has been on Letterman.

Estadio Nacional

I agree but then there are some of them that have done well look at clinton dempsey and tim howard.

Charlie Davis still plays in sweden still a young lad same applies to Altidore he's 19!!! thats younger than our Sheridan and i would say he's alot better than sheridan!

Landon Donnovan is a tough one he always does well in the mls maybe the problem is the german league it doesn't suit him.I reckon he'd do a turn for is no problem.

MB

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend... Kilbowie Kelt

I agree with you, Pal. and in Spades, Diamonds,.. especially.. Heart!.. that Mr. Fortune, is not the Type of Player that we should go after.

His C.V. .. is whit Ah wid call Brutally Bereft of Interest.

He has lasted, Barely ..on average.. For Two Years at each of his past employers... and Ah hiv the Figures tae back that up.

Viz:

Lille........... to OUT...............Aug4 2004.

Out............ to Utrecht............July11 2005.

Utrecht....... to Nancy ............Feb 1 2007.

Nancy ....... to W.B.A. ........... Jan 15 2009.(Loan)

Nancy ...... to ? ........... June 26 2009.

And his Goal Scoring Record, is as you know, A Legendary Damp Sqibb.

If Celtic,should pursue this Proven, "No User".. then my estimation of the Managerial Intelligence of Mr. Mowbray, will be seriously Reduced.

Fortune, is a complete Wash Out.

I cannot look at that C.V. of his.. without feeling how much I shall Weep...
if... the most unlikely of circumstances should come about.. and Celtic's interest, is confirmed, by his completion of an incoming Transfer, to us.

Kojo.
yer pal... who likes ye a loat.

EN,

you see Lucio at it again there off the ball with one of the US front 2???

Mattybhoy,

would you play Donovan instead of Aiden? Play very similar roles albeit Donovan slightly more withdrawn. Aiden for me mate.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Half time 2-0!phew

Man of wise words as always Kojo hope BTM takes heed!

MB

Mattybhoy

I was surprsied at Donovan not doing well in Germany, you might be right the league may not suit him, as I said he could be a decent signing.

EN

The Token Tim

Well with me it wouldn't be a case of one or the other we could play one on each side or one through the middle supporting the striker there space for variation and since naka's departure there is need for a bit of flare.He also gives hard work aswell always back tracking aswell as being as quick as the wind.

MB

Kojo,

Nice research, but you never know. Remember a certain Mr Larsson. Oh aye - and Lubo...........

Trust the Boss, for he is the man in the know.........

Just watched the US's 2nd goal....what a superb goal, fantastic example of fast counter attcking football......although it did help that Brazil stupidly left themselves 2 v 2 at the back!

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

I wonder if part of USA's success is their organisation and positional discipline?

If so, does this stem from their culture of the Grid Iron game, which is heavily based on formations,plays and tactics.

Brazil's emphasis, under Dunga, of more brawn, less skilful players is not intimidating the USA tonight, especially in midfield.

The Token Tim

I think Ive got a touch of the Arsene Wengers, I didnt see that either, its a sid eof his game I was unaware of.

EN

Kilbowie Kelt at 7:47

Does that mean you really wouldn't sign Fortune?

Don't be sitting on the fence prevaricating:o)

mibbeesayemibbeesnawcsc

I dont know if we approached him but I think I know why Owen Coyle decided to stay where he was.

Owen Coyle Pie

Maybe we should have offered to do a Square Sausage meat sculpture?

Mattybhoy,

I only made the comparison purely based upon Donovan's position here in the Conf Cup, where he has played left midfield, a la Aiden.

I would like to see Aiden given a run of games on the RHS to judge how well he could adjust. Personally I think we would see a far greater return on his crosses than we have seen so far from the left.

But at who's expense that would be I don't know.

Donovan is a good player though, no argument there. In fact were we not linked with him during MON's time?

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Yes 40 minutes of Brazillian attack

2-1

2-1!

Fabiano with great turning shot could this be the come back?

MB

How desperate the close season

a running commentary on US v Brazil ...in SA

my word

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend.. RoscoePCo

My Friend.. I cannot give you a fair argument,in order to properly Refute,your claim...in comparing this Man to the Mighty and Successful
Duo.. of Lubo and Larsson.

The Reason,being of course.. I have no Idea of the past C.V.s of those wonderful Pair of Soccer Magicians.

In any case.. as I only deal in the Present Time... and not the Past..

I have put forward, actual Real Time Current Facts, concerning the Background of Mr. Fortune.

So.. the point that you have raised, in my own opinion, is one that is Mute.

On perusing the C.V. of Mr. Fortune,even a Tyro, such as I, in the Ways of the Beautiful Game.. readily sees that there must serious flaws in the manner in which Mr.Fortune Performs his professional duties, as he definitely fails to Impress his VARIOUS EMPLOYERS,proven by the shortest of shrifts, which he is dealt, by those.

Kojo.
yer pal...who likes ye aloat.

TTT

Well i agree with you but i also liked his role in the cis cup final he was a diffent class in that wee free role behind the striker.
Donnovan is versatile he's been moved about throughout the confed cup he could do job were ever aidan isn't.I Just feel we're losing a big part of our attack creativity with naka going and it essential that its replaced!

MB

mattybhoy

i wouldn`t think that aiden would have any interest in a "wee free" role :¬)

PF ayr

Spot on.I'm bored and desperate for some enterainment
This is the highlight of my weekend as sad as it sounds had my anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed two weeks so i'm still confind to the quiet life and as a young lad thats just finnished uni for the summer its torture no summer holidays or anything!

A very bored MB

Heard we are in for Alves of boro for 6M and Guttierez from newcastle.
Came from Venus mate.
Reckons Alves would run amok up here.
Not sure how kosher this is.
He is out with him this weekend so find out more tomorrow hopefully.
Dont fancy Alves and not seen enough of Guttierez

Mattybhoy,

I agree re. the rift caused by Naka's departure must be filled.
I also agree re Aiden being given a free role. In fact I advocated on here that both him and Naka should have been given free roles behind a lone front-man in our last 3 games v rangers last season.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

that was a goal for brazil!

CAL

what about their massive EPL wages ?

Kojo,

I defend my point as not being mute Sir!!

Regardless of his biography to date, my point is that Signor Mowbray is the new Boss, is likely to have a good inside handle on who the good players who might come to us might be, and must be allowed to make these choices. If Tony rates him highly (and that`s a real "IF"), then bring it, and him, on!!

Hail Hail

Certain goal.
Masonic conspiracy me thinks.

I hope your kidding about Both Alves and Jonas both players dont excite me at all Alves is a striker similar so samaras in terms of the way he plays and the fact he is a confidence player (i kind of player that doesn't handle playing for big clubs with pressure on them!).Jonas has a good work rate but never scored for newcastle and hardly created any chances not a great stat for a supposide winger!

MB

whats with the bee swarm horn things in the crowd? are we going to have to put up with that racket during the world cup?

PF,

do i detect a hint of sarcasm there sir?????

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Looks like Man City are set to spend yet again.

This is from a good source.

Flood at Man City

PF Ayr.
Alves is possibly damaged goods and Guttierez is at Newcastle (is he a current international with Argentina)so his contract might reflect the relegation unlike the Vidukas and teh others on 50K plus
I would think its unrealistic myself but the source is a guy who works with my old man down south( who is a frequent lurker on here)

I thought Alves has a bad knee injury and is out for months?

CAL

Alves has had a nightmare season.His confidence was shot.

I think at the right price he would do very well for us.A couple of early goals would see him off and running.

I would go Tuncay over Alves anyday.

Matty Bhoy,

iam not kidding what i was told but i agree it seems unrealistic and i dont fancy Alves in particular.

Maybe the Fortune interest is as Paul suggested a smokescreen and we will get someone from off radar

Perhaps a wee bit off topic ...but...
I've just read a wee reprise by David Potter on the legend that was Danny McGrain....( naw he's no deid..ah meant when he played).
I was lucky enough to have followed the Lions..and then hard on their heels came the Quality Street Kids...and one Daniel Fergus McGrain.What a player ....Scotland hasn't produced many world class players in the accepted sense of the word..but he was one. In fact when I was voting for the Greatest Ever Celt, I seriously considered Danny for the award , that's how highly I rated him.
Very nice man and good Celt...still working away for the Club.
Hail hail
PS: The title of his autobiography is one of the cleverest ever..... "IN SUNSHINE AND IN SHADOW".....Superb.

WGS - agreed. Tuncay is a great player. Alves is an unproven Brazilian who likes his pies with extra gravy!!!

2-2 Fabiano

kljestans coming on!

Now we can see if we're missing out!

oh its 2-2 tryed they're hardest not to score there brazil!

MB

How about some value as opposed to EPL failures

TTT

moi..surely not ..:¬)

Cal

I like Tuncay aswell ,but he will cost more than Alves, i think.

I don't think that we can afford any of those players.They will be on mega salaries.

WGS,

dont know.

I was reluctant to post the info as i knew it would get holes picked in it and i honestly couldnt quantify the legitimacy of it as it is third hand info unlike what i posted last week regarding Boruc , Aiden and Gary Caldwell contracts.

That could be quantified

CAL

Hope so aslong as its not alves!

MB

CAL

you been readin Wiki?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afonso_Alves

Celtic4orme

They are a pain, theres an argument that they are part of SA football culture and they should be allowed next summer but Id ban them, my heid is bursting.

Vuvuzela

EN

Gary,
clicked on your link.
Honestly havent.

When i get the email forwarded to me tomorrow i will send it to Paul 67.

The WIKI thing is interesting though

celtic4orme on June 28, 2009 8:58 PM

Estaio is correct some SA culture horn,talk sport had a SA sport journalist on will be used at world cup and has the backing of Mr blatter,you should hear it when SA are in attack

Anybody see Steve McClaren's comments? Syas he would love to drwa Celtic in the CL as he feels it would be easy to beat them.

WGS, where's that reported?

3-2 Brazil Lucio

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend.. RoscoePco.

The confidence that you exhibit,regarding your faith, in Mr.Mowbray...to use your own, Woids.."Mr.Mowbray.. Is likely to have good inside handle
on who that good players,who might come to us might be"... is highly
commendable..

I congratulate you oan your show of faithfullness.

Howevahhhhh..

My own Disbelief in the Rumour.. that Celtic are at all interested in the final destination of Mr. Fortune..is Based on the very same confidence, in the Managerial Nous of Mr. Mowbery,in which you so highly approve.

I simply cannot bring myself to the belief that, Mr. Mowbray would be unaware of Mr. Fortune's,overt short comings.

That is why I said in one of my last offerings, that if Mr. Mowbray is...

Definitely interested in Bringing this Fellow along with Him to Celtic,then,if that turns out to be the case, and, in fact..

Then my Belief in the Native Perspicacity and Inherent Shrewdness, of Mr. Mowbray, shall be Shattered Beyond Repair!

In short or in long..

I do not Believe that Mr. Mowbray, was at any time, interested in Bringing Mr. Fortune to Celtic.

I believe this story was born in the Fertile Imaginings of the gentlemen of Yellow Press.

and

When Mr. Fortune, does go elsewhere..

The Yellow Press, have already got the following Head Lines in Type. and ready to Go.

"Fortune SNUBS the Celts"

Kojo.
yer pal... who likes ye aloat

No defender on the post for the corner?

WGS

One of the Polish portals said on Friday that Junior Diaz was piece of good business for Wisla Krakow. They paid about 300 000 Euros for the player. Now he is worth few times more. Portal said that in January Celtic and Auxerre were tracking the player.

This article is the snowball now. Wait one more day and you will hear that Celtic decided to sell his left back Junior Diaz to Barcelona. Radio Yerevan.

Few times me and KrakowBhoy suggested that Rafal Murawski from Lech was good enough to play for Celtic. Today he signed for Russian champion Rubin Kazan. I don't know what was transfer fee.

3-2 Brazil.

as far as Im concerned US shoot themselves in the foot with a simple basic schoolboy error - No man on the far post.

Had "he" been there, "he" clears easily.

Stupidity.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

WGS

my concern is that if we don`t get players in he may just be correct

his team finished above PSV and Ajax

we couldn`t beat the huns ....

we can`t score goals and we can`t defend set pieces ....

would you be confident at beating them ?

Been lurking more than posting of late...due to the dire state of CQN this close season, however Cal, i can add...i have heard Alves is a possible.....not sure how i feel about it and i would not have posted until i saw your post...trying to corroborate a rumour...if thats possible.

Sign the US defender with that degree of ineptitude at set pieces he`d fit in well with us

Zybszek,

Any news on Xabi Castillo? The Bosman list this year is very interesting to say the least. There are quite a few experienced pleyrs in there.

Nakmura,

Apparently done an interview with one the dutch media and said he fancy his chances off going through if they drew Celtic.

WGS

Ronald Gercaliu signed today for Austrian Bundesliga club Wiener Neustadt.

Anas Sharbini still in Rijeka.

His brother Ahmad said to the Croatian media - Anas, please sell yourself and save us all. That was about financial situation at Rijeka.

Pfyar,

I wouldn't disagree either if it's the current crop and no additions. However, i like this over confidence. Typical English arrogance if you ask me.

Zybszek,

Anas Shabrini for Celtic???? Xabi Castillo or Junior Diaz for left back?

Kojo,

Janko or Maierhoffer instead of Fortune? Janko was across in January was he not, had the tour and fell in love with the place.

Two days to go till pre-season training starts.

Just over a week till the squad leaves to come and visit down under.

Four weeks till the first CL qualifier.

No additions to the squad and if anything we are weaker than we were at the end of last season.

Another shambolic summer beckons.

Just read that wiki page on Alves.

I know he hasn't exactly scored a barraload down at Boro, but I would defo be interested on a possible loan deal.

Guy with a point to prove for no transfer fee - hence the reason to be able to pay the massive EPL wages - just for you PF :-) - sounds OK to me.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Does the McLaren story not just emanate from here...

http://www.oleole.com/blogs/thelordofthewing/posts/celtic-lose-a-fortune

which I think is supposed to satirical?!

Soldierbhoy,
its amazing how it works isnt it by my posting, the WIKI link and now you it may have given oxygen to the rumour and now it may grow arms and legs.
It is a Celtic site to discuss all things Celtic but as i said iwas original reluctant to post due to holes getting picked in it

the level of the drone didnt change once, it didnt matter whats going on on the pitch.

i'm glad to hear garth crooks talking

wgs

thats a blatant misqoute - he called us sheltic.

supposed to BE satirical I meant...

Kojo,

Take your point bout the press, but (Howevahhhhh.... :-) ) it was Peter "La Pointer" Grant who was brave enough to say we might favour the Fortune, so there might be some truth in it............

And I can`t believe your faith in big TM would be shattered beyond repair if we did sign the fella. Come on - he`s no` even had pre-season yet !!

Hail Hail

michael collins

aye, another summer of waiting until the last weeks of august to do our transfer business.

MC,

Come on man! 4 weeks plenty time to get 1 or 3 new faces in.

Wait until its 2 days before the CL qualifier before being all doom and gloom.

I know you want to see the new bhoys down in Brisbane, but don't get despondent already mate.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

The Token Tim

Lucio crying at the end, that was him catching up on CQN that he missed while playing.

I hope your happy now.

EN

CAL

as long as you`re true to yourself ...continue to post rumour and any info

that`s what it is all about

Lets be honest

If you are a manager of one of the other clubs in the CL qualifiers,then you would want Celtic.

We are nowhere near the same quality as we were in recent years.

If the likes of Inverness and StMirren can beat us ,then teams in the CL have every right to feel confident against us over two legs.

Xabier Castillo is not from my region.
I see he was born in Durango but in 1986. If it had been in 1975 I would have thought Bob Dylan had had something to do with Bob. Dylan wrote "Romance in Durango" (on Desire 1975).

Michael Collins

Cheer up mate.

Life doesn't revolve round Celtic.

Honestly!

...to do with that, not with Bob.

anyone got any updates on paddy mcourts fitness for the pre season friendlies
I would really like to see him given the first few games .
hail hail

EN,

Naw am no, he scored the winner!

He wins and he's greetin', see what I mean about him being a wee girl's blouse!

GRrrrrrr!

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

I dont have the knowledge of the foreign market as i used due to being 38 and not being obsessed as i used to like some of the other posters therefore my preference for a CF would be Fletcher from Hibs.
He is not a prolific scorer but since he came on against us as a 17 year old at CP and scored a screamer from the left i have almost always been impressed by him.
He is a real footballer , has guile and is also better in the air than big Jan .

Do like the look of Janko on the clips i have seen but again iam scared about his record previous to this past season

tinytim

we have a home record that is about as good as anyone in europe. everyone knows how hard it is to come to celtic park

Flicked to BBC4 where Springsteen at Glastonbury was croaking his weary way through 'Because the night'. As the final bars gratefully come, he picks up a tatty carboard sign with the words 'No surrender' scrawled on it and shows it to the crowd. Someone, somewhere, somehow, will be happy.

celtic4orme

That is what i would be telling my team ,if i were the Celtic manager.

bloke_109

he's nearly 60, its a challenge to male impotence.

Bloke_109 - there`s always a flickwit somewhere eh? Don`t much like BS`s music myself, but from what I`ve heard of him, he`d not want to be associated with that......

Bloke_109,
Springstein has a song called no surrender, although him holding up that sign would have appealed to someone one some level I'm sure!
Hail Hail
Ballabhoy

My dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,dear,friend..RoscoePco

Verily, Verlily.

It is true tat Mr. Grant did enthuse and plant the seedling,in the minds of all, concerning the possibility that Mr.Fortune could be a possible Celtic Target.

And, that... my friend . was the beginnings of the doubts that may be now forming in my Mind.. regarding.. not only .. the sagacity of Mr.Grant... but, if what he opined turned of to be true.. also, that of Mr.Mowbray.

In any case.. the sin that Mr. Grant committed was more than Venial.

A Most Unprofessional.. . Faux Pas.

It is never Politic to let the Left hand, Know in Advance.. where your Right Hand is going... especially, in form of an Announcement to the General Public.

Mr. Grant.. committed a serious Breach of Etiquette,when he Second Guessed what Mr. Mowbray was up to.

If Mr. Grant was in My employ.. The very next day..

He would have an urgent appointment with my Good Self...inside, the Company Woodshed!

So.. the upshot of this mistake by Mr.Grant.. it gave some credence to the Spate of Stories, that erupted, penned lovingly by our Journalistic Detractors.

I believe that both you and I, are not far apart in our opinions,pal.

I have enjoyed our little tete a tete..

and we must do it again.

Kojo.
yer pal..who likes ye aloat.

thats silvio out of the sopranos on guitar isnt it?

TTT

I've only just managed to console my 12 year old that Naka wont be in Brisbane by the promise that there will be new players for him to idolise.

EDB

I know what you are saying mate and even if we sign no-one life will go on.

celtic4orme

Like last year you mean. Or do you count Pat McCourt and Matty Hughes as serious business. If you do then we must agree to disagree.

If we are serious about negotiating the two CL qualifiers and getting to the group stage then our transfer deadline is 29th July.

Unless we have given up on the CL and have accepted Europa Cup. As Paul might say hmmmmmmmmm.

Re: Bruce Springsteen

Balancing things up?

Michael Collins

Maybe we dont want to risk new signings against the likes of Craig Moore and Charlie Miller?

EN

micheal collins

last time we had champions league qualifiers we had all our serious business sewn up by 1 july

last season we had everyone but maloney singed up by mid august, 4 1/2 weeks before our first cl game. everyone but maloney and loovens signed before the first spl game of the season, loovens signed before the second.

i think its strethcing things a bit to describe that as shambolic, dont you?

Can count on the fingers of two fingers the bands I'd go to a festival for. One of them is not Blur. Bleurgh, more like. Ha ha.

Kojo,

Agreed Sire. I for one don`t fancy venturing towards your Woodshed anytime soon..... :-)

Modern Blur is Rubbish.

Old Blur were not that great either.

written when 16...

Wow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPk11AugG4c&feature=related

U

HEading on hols in the morning.. and only jumping on after glancing back thru the last couple fo nights.

EDB mate you desreve Tuesday. All the best to you and yours...

Cases beign packed and the CQN book club is in there as well.

All the best for the next few weeks (i might be back on later if allowed)hope to come back to a happier Celtic Family.

PFayr if your in manchester airport tomorrow give me a shout..

Estadio

Dont forget Bob Malcolm who has also signed for the Roar. I'd be surprised if Charlie Miller could catch any of our players to kick them as he is now even more fat and rotund than he ever was. Still a star for Brisbane however and that tells you all you need to know about the standard here.

celtic4orme

Spin can work both ways. Another way of putting it was that by the time the season kicked off we had signed only Samaras who wasnt really a new signing as he had been on loan previously. I think the way the season panned out last year showed that our summer transfer window and the January one were indeed shambolic.

Not to mention the fact than this year we are looking at the complete rebuild of a mediocre squad having already lost our best player.

Keep banging the drum mate you might even convince yourself eventually but regardless in the situation we are in any new aquisitions should be on the plane to Brisbane if we are to give them sufficient time to gel with the rest of the squad in time for the CL qualifiers.

If we go into the CL qualifiers with our current squad I wouldnt rate our chances of beating Motherwell over two legs never mind Arsenal.

Falkirk let 8 players go

amongst them Cregg..must say i`m surprised as i always thought he played well when i saw him

Try and put a team together with what's left of the first team squad and we're in trouble. No Naka,Heartly,JVOH.....So quality required and quick.

GL2

we`re flying out 7am on Tuesday

where are you off to mate ?

By celticeoin on June 28, 2009 6:13 PM

Lads how come nobody is mentioning Niall Mcginn for breaking through this year i thought he was even better than paddy in reserves when i seen him this year and i think he'll improve again whats your opinion on him?

He'll not amount to much mate, having watched him in the Irish League we have better players in the reserves that will end up better than McGinn.

By WGS on June 28, 2009 6:48 PM

WGS
Absolutely no way. He is one of those modern type of players that seemlingly dominate the Italian league. A player with impressive physical attributes - strength, pace mostly, but lacking any real footballing ability. His decision making is atrocious - first touch, awareness, team working, attitude - all poor. No thanks.

View - I'll give you Naka... But... JVOH??????

Re the CL qualifiers, I dont want to give people ideas but its possible we could play the following

Sparta Praha

Panathinikos

With at least a new forward, Id fancy our chances, but we should be buying based on stronger CL qualification opposition.

I want to take some CL money off those that dont deserve.

Grab it Celtic.

ulysses mcghee,
The point I was making was, they were all first teamers. We're looking really weak at the moment, not much to see Wednesday morning.

Michael Collins; viewfaethewindae -

I think you`re being a bit negative. We have the basis of a very good side - Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, ________ ; Maloney, Crosas, Brown, McGeady; McDonald, __________;

Not too many gaps there - and it`s early days for the manager to make his mark................

RoscoePCo,
Agree, but fling in a couple of injuries.

Best thing about Blur gig?

The huge 'I love sausage' flag.

michael collins

"another shambolic summer beckons"

you keep posting untruths like our transfer dealings and i'll keep showing them up. we made 4 signings including crosas before the start of the season, 2 after. all done 4 1/2 weeks before the cl started

the summer before, when we had cl qualifiers like we do now we had all the serious business done by 1 july

so really, all talk of "another shambolic summer beckons" is a wee bit unfair no - we've done just fine the last 2 summers. not unlike your comments about season book sales being 30% down on last season.

you seem to take a great pleasure in running celtic down.

EN

freaky

me and Mrs were just having a laugh at that

the concert is pants

viewfaethewindae - Injuries? Ok. Given the choice, Mendes, Davis. Oh, and Bougherra :-)

Hail Hail

PF were off 7pm Monday we could not get Croatia to meet the requirments of the cubs so we are off to Turkey. I was hoping to get a beer with you and yours but not working out.

Get together in the new season

PF ayr

Cregg being signed up by Hibs

celtic4orme

the whole of last season was shambolic .. not just the close season

if you think anything more then you are very easily pleased

Evening all.

Fling in a few injuries/suspension but also what happens when we need a bit of dig.

Other than Brown (notice you missed out Robson) there is not a lot of aggression in their when needed.

View

I know, but see after the last few rounds of Celtic close windows - I'd rather (If TQM is to be trusted with the reigns) time was taken to get the right ones in - as opposed to any ones in.

I must admit to having very little expectation about signings now - just nerves awaiting confirmation.

I travel hopefully though. Always.

I know you do too.

U

PF ayr

Red button is an option, more of the same though.

EN

bourne

that makes sense

GL2

enjoy

def catch up next season ..i`ll not be driving this time
books....
got a real mixed bag of books for this one

easy reading ..last 2 Mike Connellys

and heavy ..Shantaram ...

and Zafon`s latest

Micheal's depressing analysis is particularly sombering in one essential factor: it's accuracy!

Ghod, I just hate biscuit-tin transfer windows...

EN/PF,

could be worse, you could be watching that pwick Alan Carr as my "better" half is right now!

Count yirsels lucky.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Are there any SPL players worth taking, Fletcher, Driver?

PF ayr

aye, and a better bet than flood or hartley

then again so are a lot of SPL players

TTT

i had to endure that Big Brother bollox until 10

i steadfastly refused to watch Carr thereafter

mind you this isnae great

opposed/apposed

reigns/reins

blooze/booze

sorry

West Wales Celt

I take it you were joking about the 'biscuit tin'? Pre season has not started yet, I agree we should be signing players next week but its a bit early to write the window off.

EN

viewfaethewindae

Driver had a good game for the England under 21s last week, I think that now rules him out for us, English teams are now aware of him. I wouldnt be interested in him or Fletcher.

EN

Re the Springsteen No Surrender sign - it was placed next to one of the speakers - and initially the BBC cameras were avoiding it. The flags in the crowd gave an idea where it came from.

Looks like they are going to have to surrender though as hopefully peace will reign for a long time.

celtic4orme

Your showing nothing up except the fact you are clutching at straws. Marc Crosas was signed on the day of the first SPL match of the season and didnt make an appearance for several weeks after that.

The fact you are citing this and the signings of Matty Hughes and Pady McCourt as proof we were well prepared for the new season shows the paucity of your argument and the events that transpired last year rammed home how poorly prepared we really were.

You say the previous year all our business was done by 1st July, the last year we had a CL qualifier. Where does that leave this years preperations given that in that year we only played one qualifier in mid-August and this year we have one in four weeks time.

Shambolic doesnt even begin to cover it.

Please dont start with this "taking pleasure in running Celtic down" stuff. We've heard all this uber-Tim nonsense before.

pf ayr

i was responding to michael collins point about our summer transfer dealings. we may have not spent enough money, or our money wisely depending on your view, but we did our business early enough in my opinion

last season had ups and downs, more downs, and a fair few mistakes but it wasnt a shambles for the whole club. to be 7 points clear twice suggests otherwise. a shambles was finishing 2, 3 and 4th season after season.

uly

semantics

opposed and apposed ..synonym ..

you should be sorry

BigSwee - good call re Robson. Top player for us, and will continue to be so I hope!

When Strachan wanted a physical presence in midfield he tended to go with Caldwell, altho I`m not a fan of that experiment - I like midfielders to be comfortable on the ball, something that Gary would like to be, but isn`t good enough in my opinion.

Hail Hail

This is what we finished mass today with....magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAzwT15Oo4w&feature=related

I actually think we will have a few lined up and the next week will be interesting as the players report back and the new management team get a look at them.

I like most was brassed off at the failure of the board and management to strengthen last January and I honestly feel that they know they screwed up big time so we are all watching.

This is a make of break year for a lot of people as to the direction the club is going in. A lot of apathy very evident at the games which will see more people be picky at attending cups etc. They need to build a buzz of expectation and the easiest and surest way is to strengthen the sqaud and cull the dead wood.

PF,

I canny complain too much, I got to watch the Confed final, well last 60 mins anyway (albeit I was shoved through to the front room to watch it on the wee telly).

Forced to watch last 25 mins of BB then Carr too! Only upside is that while she is watching that pash I can browse CQN without too much moanin. Obviously she still has a wee moan or 2 but then she is a wummin so what else can I expect???

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Estadio Nacional,
Thought he could have done a job on the left with McGeadie on the right.

The Token Tim PF Ayr

Good tv?

Double bill re-runs of Peep Show start at 11.10 on E4, then followed by Curb Your Enthusiasm.

EN

Good night and God Bless, Faith of our Fathers, that's a cracker, you canny beat a good mass

Agree re Caldwell in the middle. Thought he did fairly well but struggled when put under pressure when closed down quickly. A lot of that meaning a forced attempt to pass which nearly always ended up being intercepted. Can't fault him for effort though but I prefer him playing in his more accustomed role at the back.

Robson I think will hopefully benefit from the full pre-season and hopefully will stay injury free to allow him to establish himself although the gaffer may prefer a more languid approach with Crosas, Maloney etc.

celtic4orme

you cite being 7 points clear twice as reason for the whole seaon not being a shambles

on the contrary ...the above reinforces the shambolic nature of last season

throwing away a significant lead twice /beaten by St Mirren in the SC and being dumped out of Europe before Christmas

pretty shambolic imo

Big Swee,

For the first time since it became an option I have NOT taken the auto-cup tickets DD.

Hopefully our record in the cups will improve, but as you say they are not getting my money for nothing, I will decide if I am going and thereby pay at that point as opposed to my money being paid regardless of my attendance or not.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Right...

Eto'o

Is 28

MAN C are willing to pay - without much competition it seems - 30m euros

I'm beginning to forsee a 'Highest paid ever flops - flop!' headline.

Man C have enough money to lay the foundations of a mega team - instead - money money money. It will be Jose next - mark my words.

U

Fair Shout TT.

I have opted to take them again in the hope things will improve and if I can't make the game there is always a family member looking to use them.

Agree with the financial prudence you display. Hope it disnae catch on with the board ;o)

michael collins

the other day you said another summer of waiting until the last 2 weeks of august to do our main business. we signed 10 out of 12 players before the last 2 weeks of august in the last 2 summers. one of them we bought from mon who as we all know hasnt a great record of tying up business before the last day of the window.

today its another shambolic summer because we dont have signings in place in time for the cl. more nonsense, as i've shown our record in the last 2 summers has been pretty good when it comes to signings for the cl

this summer is a bit different, we have a new manager, short of spending his budget before he took over i'm not really sure what you want.

what about the 30% shortfall in season tickets you told us all about?

Well, we busted out of class
Had to get away from those fools
We learned more from a three-minute record, baby
Than we ever learned in school
Tonight I hear that neighborhood drummer sound
I can feel my heart begin to pound
You say you're tired and you just want to close your eyes
And follow your dreams down

Well, we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night with a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender

Well now young faces grow sad and old
And hearts of fire grow cold
We swore blood brothers against the wind
I'm ready to grow young again
And hear your sister's voice calling us home
Across the open yard
Well, maybe we could get someplace of our own
With these drums and these guitars

Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend
Now, on the streets tonight, the light's grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
You say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath peaceful skies
In my lover's bed
With wide open country in my eyes
And those romantic dreams in my head, because

Blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to defend

No retreat, baby, no surrender
Oh, oh, oh...

Honest To Ghod lhads we need to get a grip. What next ? John Lennon contributing to the PIRA ?

A CQN banned list ?

http://www.adherents.com/people/ps/Bruce_Springsteen.html

Bruce Springsteen was raised in a fairly devout Catholic home.
The influence of Springsteen's Catholic background on his music has been noted, and Catholic Social Justice teachings appear to have become a strong influence on his adult political beliefs and activism. However, Springsteen is not known to have been an active churchgoer as an adult. Various aspects of Springsteen's personal life as an adult do not reflect basic Catholic stands of personal morality. Springsteen is not evasive about his Catholic upbringing, but neither is he known to openly embrace a Catholic self-identity.
Occasional mis-identification of Springsteen as being Jewish or having Jewish ancestry is entirely erroneous and appears to be based purely on his surname.

I suggest you read the rest and do some research not based on tabloid guff hearsay and urban legends

Hail HAil

pf ayr

i think your and my definition of a shambles are different in that case. i would take a 7 point lead in january every season.

my god blur are awful.

A bit underwhelmed by Blur on the final night, but enjoying ParkLife with Phil Daniels up on the stage.
Reminds me, I need to cut back on the pork pies....like a few others on here!

Talking of which, PF - is that a new book by the guy who wrote "Shadow of the Wind"?

TTTT

By Michael Collins on June 28, 2009 10:00 PM

TTT

I've only just managed to console my 12 year old that Naka wont be in Brisbane by the promise that there will be new players for him to idolise.

Michael,

I think it is time that you sat that child down and explained to him / her about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

tttt where di u see parklife? we are watching and have misssed it?

celtic4orme

All three of our significant new signings arrived from the middle to the end of August. Samaras was already there and the other two were reserve/youth players one of whom was most probably signed by our majority shareholder.

Your right when you say that this season is different though. This season we have a qualifier earlier than we have had since Artmedia Bratislava but this year we will be facing much trickier opposition.

This makes it immperative that we get the squad together ASAP especially after the shambles, and it was a shambles, of last years capitualtion to the hun.

Delays in appointing a manager cannot now be given up as an excuse for not being prepared for the CL qualifier. According to Mark McGhee he new GS was leaving in January.

One failure cannot be used as an excuse for another.

Tramps like us Awe Naw

celtic4orme

Also check back in my posts and tell me where I have stated about a 30% reduction in SB sales. You will find that I expressed my concern about reports emminating at the time and what they could mean for the club if they turned out to be true.

For the record we have nothing other than a statement from Celtic to tell us otherwise at the moment and the fact that Celtic are doing the hard sell at the moment including recorded phone messages to fans on the database from the manager and first team players suggest they still have some hard selling to do.

Turning in for the evening.

Good night and God bless

GL2 - been and gone, get on Beeb 3 - The Prodigy. Much better then Bluuuugh!

TTTT

GL2 - I'm not sure if the oldest cub should be listening to "Smack my Bitch Up"!!
The video for that was something else though.....

TTTT

michael collins

you said the last 2 weeks. we had everyone but maloney in place before the last 2 weeks. what can i say, you can keep moving the goalposts but i'll keep going bakc to what you originally said. everyone bar maloney was at celtic before the last 2 weeks of last summers transfer window. so it wasnt a shambles, one signing was late in the window because of mon.

mcghee is wgs' best mate and he knew he was leaving in january. proves nothing - doesnt tell you anything about what wgs was telling celtic. i would tell my best mate what my plans were a long time before my employer, happy in the knowledge that he would keep schtum.

in my opinion there was no failure in how long it took to appoint mowbray. none at all. no excuses needed, the amount of time it took to appoint mowbray was perfectly reasonable.

no comments on the 30% drop in season ticket sales?

TTTT cant get a go of the controls...waiting on Glasvegas but giving up soon.

Everyone have a great time Ghood night and God Bless from Gods town.

Tommytwiststommyturns

Good shout I thought I was going to suffer more Blur. Prodigy is the first Rock n roll band Ive seen this weekend.

EN

TTTT

the end to that vid was a darned good twist.

have we signed embiddy yet or ur we gonny?

MWD

celtic4orme - i'd much rather be 7 points ahead wi 2 games to go than in january - last season was a shambles mate, starting in August doing nothin in the transfer window, continuing in January doing nothin in the transfer window, and ending up not being able to beat either of our 2 feeder clubs from edinburgh in may, with occasional outbreaks of mediocrity in the champions league, and about 4 decent performances domestically. SHAMBLES wouldn't do it justice to be fair.

300th

Big Swee,

As I say this is the first year I haven't taken up the option, not only because our cup record has been pretty rubbish in recent years and my usual non-attendance, but the last 2 seasons I literally couldnt give my tickets away!

Hopefully you are right though and we do reach Hampden a few more times in the coming years.
Canny beat SC Final Saturday!

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

BBC3 red button for Glastonbury - Nick Cave, Franz Ferdinand, Madness, jazz world or Black Eyed Peas

Been missing in action for a coupole of days.

Just in's n oots. No chance to really read, then today when I came in it appeared Paul67 was having a Sebo.

I haven't missed Kit's essay on the "Hun" word yet, have I?

MWD

EN/MWD - fekin Black Eyed Peas better than Damon and his mates. That's my kind of Fergie!

How do I get to see the stuff I really want, Neil Young from Friday night????

Keep on Rocking in the Free World.

TTTT

MWD,

Thats clutching at straws :-)

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

TTT

so is it just you and me for the 10th or do we have interlopers?

MWD

so many questions so little tiem.

Bloke,

MADNESS every time me ole son :-)

In saying that Franz were pretty good last night.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

thomthetim

I told him we would have a 5 million pound striker and a new left back in the line up for Brisabane he said it was more likely that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy would turn out for the hoops.

michael collins

give me a break. you inferred that season ticket sales were down 30% on the same time last year, you suggested that you knew someone who knew what they were talking about.

dont hide behind concern for celtic, you made out that it was because celtic fans were voting with their feet. it was to make a point and it wasnt concern about what was best for celtic.

Michael Collins

Ive seen a few references to 'Brisvegas' around when folk are refering to Brisbane (I think), any idea where that phrase came from or what it is about?

EN

tttt

hope this works for CS&N

MWD,

So far me and you mate. But only mentioned it in passing late the other night.

Will put it out to the wider CQN Nation later this week.

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

celtic4orme

Loovens was signed on the 16th August. If I originally said the last fortnight I may have been out by two days. It matters not your arguing semantics to try and cover up a grossly negligent approach to our transfer dealings last season and this which in January wrecked our title hopes and threatens to do the same to our CL hopes if we dont act quickly.

You also state that Martin O'Neill was responsible for the delay in signing Shaun Maloney. have you any evidence of this at all or is it tabloidesque specualtion on your part.

Regarding season books sales I've already answered that one but if you cant be bothered reading it thats ok.

TTT

you can never take it away from me now!

TTTT

can't stand black eye peas. just turned to Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

thought Blur show was good tonight

Paulo Nutini was outstanding yesterday as was the Boss (apart from the End Of Movie Speeches).

Florence and the Machine and kasabian were by far the best of the best.

Also enjoyed

Yeah Yeah Yeah's
Jack Piniati (is that how you spell it) was good too.

MWD

I don't care how much a player costs just as long as he is good enough to play for Celtic.
Many of our big money buys have been flops.
While some under a million pound have been exceptional.

As we can't live with Premireship alsorans our scouting networks needs to be better.

Glasvegas time.

Excellent

James Allen wearing leather jaiket and Samba (legends of all things Trainers)
Can take the bhoy oot Glesga :-)

HAIL! HAIL!
Token

Can't believe they are beeping out swear words this late at night.

Magic

'Recording clash Peep Show and Curb Your Enthusiasm currently recording - you cant continue with Glastonbury'

michael collins

i remember your original post about the 30% drop in season book sales well.

you come out with stuff like a 30% difference in season ticket sales and then accuse me of tabloidesque speculation.

109 - cheers mate, but the man was playing on Friday night.
Wife informs me I can watch it back through BBC iPlayer supposedly!

The Needle and the Damaged Done.
TTTT

Laverne and Radcliffe verus Whiley and Lowe. The former for me.

Bloke_109

Laverne and Radcliffe, every time, cool wee woman and a good radio man, not listened to Radio One since Mark and Lard left.

EN

I'm watching Glastonburt 2009 on BBC2 just now and i'm wondering if Nick Cave is really Boaby the barman from Still Game !

He certainly looks like him. :)

Hail Hail

Estadio Nacional ,

i was talking to a mate earlier about Mark & Lard. I used to love them in the afternoons on Radio 1. That station hasn't been as good since they were bumped.

Hail Hail

They DJ's are aw fuds! Did you hear Jo Whiley talking absolute pesh aboot Blur? Help ma boab...

Going to see AC/DC at Hampden on Tuesday, but boaking at the ticket prices (even though her indoors bought them!). Last time I saw them, I was in the circle of the Apollo and they were firing some big canon! Ears were knackered for about two days.

For those about to rock....Nite Nite!

TTTT

The red button has two Nick Caves, or as we now know, two Boabys. Plural of Boaby? Boabi (said as bo-bye). And now two Glasvegas. Glasvegae?

Possilbhoy

Thats the very fella, spitting image.

Bloke

One Glasvegas is know as 'too much'

EN

know = known

And not meant to be as cheeky as it looks.

The Token Tim ,

ah...good old Adidas Samba. The only trainers that have lasted through every fashion season.

Hail Hail

celtic4orme

If you remember my post well then you will rmember that I said if the reports were true about a 30% drop.

I have no insider knowledge at Celtic Park and have never claimed so.

EN

La Laverne every time too

BBC Glasto site - pure loadsavideos

Deeply disturbing moment on Tom Jones' set. 'She stood there laughing' and twenty thousand far-too-cheery souls chant 'ha-ha-ha-ha'. Scary.

Speaking of scary. Was in a queue behind Gary Numan in Copenhagen Airport this afternoon. Think his hair counts as excess baggage. Unreal. Part 234 of 'Me and the stars' by Bloke_109

Neil Young is Rocking the Free World via the red button pop pickers

Bloke_109

I thought he was just in to Cars, thats a let down.

Big hair?

EN

Bloke_109

Cheers for that link, Im watching Doves on iplayer while the bbc's on the tv do whatever they like.

EN

EN

Like this only higher.

Bloke_109,

Did you give it a pull?

That pic looks like a syrup.

BBC2's idea of 'exclusive unseen Glastonbury footage' is to show Francis Rossi of Status Quo backstage in his y's. Onto the beeb site and away from the telly.

Bloke

A BBC Critic's view of things

He is not telling lies.

EN

csial

Ha - I was tempted but it was in the passport-check queue. You know the way Arfur Daly raises his hat just slightly to greet someone? It was so tall I thought he'd have done that if I'd said 'Awrite Gary man, how's it gawn, ah've got a coloured vinyl of 'Are Friends Electric'. I'm assuming he got it through check-in though.

Estadio Nacional the phrase bisvegas comes from the Celtic Convention in vegas. So the one in OZ was called the Brisvegas.

a good write up in Etims from Estadio on the trip. I am in one photo in the pub on the 2nd night :)

http://www.etims.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2583&Itemid=29

Rocking the free world just started on BBC2.

i see celtic4orme is still toeing the party line. Did you have your buspass all set up for cambuslang, did you have your poster of Kevin kelly standing in the toxic affected Field, is your real name Gerry Mcsherry???
We dont have inside info, but it seems a fair bet if gordon had remained manager their would have been a drop in ST sales. Now the fans seem excited by Tony, i am anyway and he has my full backing, but still think the board has to back him more, yes he is only there 2 weeks but as MC says CL qualifier in 5 weeks. My head says Europa cup as it will take a while to get that shambles of a season out our system and our negative tactics that we used last season away from home have to change
still think if we started SPL this Saturady we would walk the League. Remember we up against clubfoot FC.

ST

SydneyTim

Cheers I saw that eTims and was looking for time to go back and read it, will have a read in the morning.

Appreciate your info the past few nights/mornings. My Sis put me in contact with the bebo Sydney City CSC, theres a lot going on around this game.

Its like the cup final we never had.

EN

Estadio Nacional where does you sis stay in Sydney?

Someone take the plunge and go out on a limb and state who they think will walk through the door with a Celtic strip on by Friday next week.

I'll go for a fairly safe punt in Xabi Castillo.

And my more outrageous option is Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Can anyone explain Glasvegas?

Are they trying to be the next Big Country? Simple Minds? Love and Money?

Even though the fella claimed he played for Celtic at distant youth level they are not very good.

And when was the last Celtic convention held in Glasgow? All you people in Oz and America and the like think you's are hard done by?

I dont think we have ever had a Celtic convention.

.

Estadio....

Have you Booked Up for The Land Down Under....?

001

PS. Sorry l Didn't get Back T'other Night....Will Call Midweek....Re; Night Oot....

By chris sutton is a legend on June 29, 2009 1:35 AM
Someone take the plunge and go out on a limb and state who they think will walk through the door with a Celtic strip on by Friday next week.

I'd say Xabi Castillo will be a Celtic player, maybe as early as this week, and our first signing.

I also believe Fortune is still a distinct possibility, again perhaps this week.

Sadly, I don't believe we have a snowball in hell's chance of signing Marc Janko. He is way beyond us now.

Yesterday afternoon was a glorious day in SE Queensland. Brilliant blue skies and very warm. So much so that we spent an hour or so walking on the Gold Coast beaches, in the middle of winter.

My point is, if Sunday 12th July is anything like yesterday, it will be a fantastic day and a carnival atmosphere for the Brisbane Roar v Celtic game.

Gold Coast Tom,

Apologies. I meant by the end of Friday this week.

I have to agree regarding Janko. I'm sure if a move is in the offing for him then his agent will be looking towards the money leagues both for himself and his client.

Maybe it's no great loss. Obviously every transfer deal is a gamble as such but what had Janko done in his previous four seasons before he burst out of nowhere last year. A one season wonder?

Who knows...

Gold Coast Tom i do hope so 22 and sunny here in Sydney today. So we now have 2 Toms on the gold coast?

ST

SydneyTim

I will have to get back to you on that one, she has moved out the city to 'house-sit' a stunning place for a mate 50 minutes drive away from the city centre. If I decide to go I plan some time in Sydney centre and some out at that house. The way its going I need to go there for a while, we have a football season starting soon though.

001

Im waiting til a moment of clarity before I decide, its due on Tuesday, kind of got a tight dead line due to The Game a week on Sunday. Got to book, travel, settle then head to Brisbane its getting tight but I would regret going there just after a Celtic game.

Im available for a night oot after Tuesday, would look forward to it, the phone numbers exchanged that dark day are very blurry, furry and probably in a hurry.

EN

Barcabhoy - from the previous thread.

You do have a point re budgets and who controls how it is, or should be spent.

When Martin O'Neill arrived at Celtic, obviously he looked at the current playing staff and familiarised himself with their contracts, ie how long still to run and what basic salary was current.

Stan Petrov at the time was on something like £7k a week.

After the 6-2 demolition of Rangers at Celtic Park, Martin was going through the players one by one in the dressing room after the game and telling them what he thought of them. When he got to Stan, he told him, "My God I am going to give you a big pay rise."

He obviously knew Stan only had a year left on his contract and how much he was earning, so was able to verbally make that promise. He did not say, "I'm going to see if I can get you a pay rise."

Clearly, Martin had a budget, but he was able to decide who to buy and who to award an improved contract, within the budget, without recourse to the Board of Directors.

The question is, has that all changed?

ST - I am in fact Tom McLaughlin :)

Gold Coast Tom ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Decided to change my user name after another poster made nasty comments about my parents, who are both frail and elderly and don't deserve that sort of nonsense. When that begins to happen, it is not wise to use your own name online.

I'm still the same crabbit bugger though :)

Gold Coast Fella

Great to hear from you, keep up the good work.

EN

Thanks Estadio Nacional :)

Gold Coast Tom yeh better to have that name, there are people online who take it too far and become nasty

Gold Coast Tom

I hope Keich Jackson had nothing to do with things ;)

EN

Im not a great fan of the music but this makes me want to go next year.

BBC at the end of Glastonbury.

Ive avoided this video and any footage of them but I had a we peek and it is a motivator for next season when you see what we were thinking in January.

Moonbeams

We produced a silver service with Champions League money on one of our good plates.

Celtic, and many of us know the players we need to buy to break in to the Champions League and also ensure we win the league.

At least grab back some of the Champions League money we handed them by making transfer mistakes last season.

We all know who we need to buy...

Grab our money from them Celtic, by spending our some of our own.

That last post was sponsored by Janko.

A striker who can sort out all domestic issues.

Available at a shop right on your door step, right now.

Darn teenagers wake me, grrrr!

Estadio: 10:43pm.
No-one would be happier to be proved wrong but we've been here so many times in recent years.

dejavuCSC

If I was a member of the board at Celtic, I would be saying to myself, and indeed to my fellow board members, "We owe the fans big time for last season. Let's really push the boat out and bring in Marc Janko and to hell with the fee and to hell with the wages. Whatever it takes."

As is my wont, I can but dream.

If Janko is the "real deal" why limit himself to playing in Scotland?

Anyone remember the smartass on BBC Mastermind a good few years ago?

Magnus: What is the capital of Mongolia?

Smartass: Inner or Outer?

Magnus: Either.

Smartass: Pass!

EDB - You could say that about any player.

You could've said that about Larsson.

Sometimes good players do choose Celtic. It isn't always about money and the big league.

It's a bit like saying - I'm not interested in signing any player who would accept a move to a backwater like Scotland, because it means he can't be very good. So we never sign anybody decent. If that were the case, we might as well all just pack up and go home.

Gold Coast Tom

That's been a topic running through CQN of late. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to capture quality players.

Henrik was a special case due to his relationship with Wim.

If Janko is a good player he'll have been scouted by clubs who can afford to pay him more than us. Sadly.

Anyway off to enjoy the supposed heatwave.

EDB - That's true about Henrik. I remember an interview when he descibed how depressed he was at Feyenoord when things went sour after Wim left. He was even contemplating giving it all up and going back to Sweden and just playing for fun and for little or no money.

Then when Celtic approached Feyenoord, they dug their heels in and demanded millions, despite a clause in his contract. By this time Henrik was really depressed and ready to walk away. To Celtic's great credit, urged on of course by Jansen, the club did not give in and pushed Feyenoord all the way until they finally gave in and told Celtic they could have him for £650,000.

In the interview Henrik described the feeling of absolute euphoria when he was told that the transfer to Celtic was on. He talked of how he felt an overwhelming debt of gratitude to the club for rescuing him from his hell and that he would forever be grateful to Celtic for that, all of which goes some way to explaining why he stayed at Celtic for so long when he could have doubled his salary in England and Europe, much earlier than he did.

Really looking forward to seeing Henrik with Gold Coast United this season. My son is ecstatic about being able to watch him play again.

It's approaching 5pm and there's an ice-cold Toohey's New with my name on it.

G'day cobbers.

Tom

Has it been confirmed that Henke is coming to the Gold Coast? If its true you can be assured of at least a thousand hoops down here in Sydney when he comes to play.

Morning CQN’ers,

A friend told me that its only 7 days until the deadline to register players for the champions league game, if that’s the case then we should be signing someone soon or maybe we’ll just gamble on getting through as per last transfer window, when we gambled the SPL away………..sorry for being so negative but it’s Monday and I don’t like them, I hope players have been identified and we’re negotiating with them, hopefully we get the right players in.

Anybody know some good rumours to cheer me up on a Monday morning.

Auld Grumpy CSC

vmhan,
This from UEFA.

List A has to be submitted by the following fixed deadlines:
a) 22 June 2009 (24.00 CET) for all matches in the first qualifying round;
b) 9 July 2009 (24.00 CET) for all matches in the second qualifying round;
c) 23 July 2009 (24.00 CET) for all matches in the third qualifying round;
d) 10 August 2009 (24.00 CET) for all matches in the play-offs;
e) 1 September 2009 (24.00 CET) for all further

So we would have to have our players registered for the 3rd qualifying round by the 23rd of July.

EDB- congratulations on your daughter's academic success.

Peter Grant talks to press and on Celtic quick news he is condemned as the Devil Incarnate.

Mark Venus talks to press and ........not a word, yet Mark's comments are actually quite negative in terms of getting new players in.

Why is that?

Surely not an blog agenda against PG??

As for the lead article, why no mention or reference to Celtic?

Strange!

LOTPAM

Probably because the topic was asset management by another club.

It's been discussed on here at length that we as a club often fail in that regard so an example of where a star player is moved on to the benefit of all. Nothing really strange in that mate :o) At least IMHO

As for PG I thing frustration more than anything played a part in that and the expectation that he should know better with the press.

It's oh so quiet!!!!

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/110713/SPL-pair-in-the-frame-for-Macedonia-hitman-

another one for the mix???

I'm optimistically assuming no news is good news. We've been told there's money so presumably someone is out there trying to spen it. Not to strengthen the side would be demented, and there must be a few clubs around looking to sell at a fair price in these dark financial times.

I just hope they've saved a couple of seats at the back of the plane to take our new Bhoys up to Brissy.

SydneyTim,

If you're still around give me a shout if you're up for another 'quiet beer' in the Rose sometime this week. :)

Hail Hail
H

Gold Coast Tom on June 29, 2009 2:14 AM
Barcabhoy - from the previous thread.

"You do have a point re budgets and who controls how it is, or should be spent.

When Martin O'Neill arrived at Celtic, obviously he looked at the current playing staff and familiarised himself with their contracts, ie how long still to run and what basic salary was current.

Clearly, Martin had a budget, but he was able to decide who to buy and who to award an improved contract, within the budget, without recourse to the Board of Directors.

The question is, has that all changed?"

I don't for definite whether it has changed or not, but ALL of the evidence in the public domain, and a number of things that have been said to me privately would strongly suggest that our CEO has to approve and has the final word on all transfers and contracts

That and the failure to support the manager properly, in the last 2 transfer windows is the reason i was so critical of him recently...

Gordon was never popular enough with the support to stamp his feet and demand control in the way Martin could and did.....I hope that part of the delay in appointing TM was down to the fact that he was getting his case over on how things need to work.....in other words," I am a professional football man, you are an accountant"...."I am not qualified to prepare the balance sheet, you are not qualified to tell me who to sign or how much to pay for them or to them"....

"I can work a calculator/abacus/spreadsheet perfectly well......tell me how much I have to spend on fees, every time i sign someone i will subtract the fee from the total, every time i sell someone i will add the fee received to the total".....similarly for wages....."i appreciate your help in the final details of the contract, however if I say we pay £x with wages of £y, then you are not to negotiate on that point to the extent of jeapordising the deal"

If we have that system , then i am happy.....if we have one , which i'm sure is what we had with gordon, which goes like "tell me gordon why i should spend £3 million on a striker to help you win this league...you already have strikers and a bigger budget than Rangers....I don't care if we haven't spent any money recently, we are no longer in Europe and you already have a decent lead in the SPL"......if thats what we have moving forward, it will be more of the same, frustration , prevarication and life in a very slow lane

The CEO is NOT qualified or capable of making judgements on player acquisition.....not just our CEO, thats any CEO operating in a UK football club....

Can't believe some of the bizarre comment's on Bruce's No Surrender. It's a 20 year old song with no political or religious lyrics. Some people just have to bring religion into everything ...

Or maybe I'm just suffering from spending 15 hours in the Hyde Park sun yesterday. More of that later.

Watched the US - Brazil game late last night, Cracking end to an entertaining tournament.

My review of the competition is here: The Confederations Cup

By Land of the Pope and McGrory on June 29, 2009 8:47 AM

I think that you are correct in that PG has his detractors on this forum. Given the state of annual hysteria regarding notions of management of the Club, it is not a great surprise that people have a view on statements made by officials. MV's statements where equally ill considered and not what a particular sort of supporter wishes to hear because it sits on top of detraction from the media in general. The prospect of a team of attacking, cavalier and ultimately of a losing variety is not what some are looking for. Compounded by the annual angst associated with the needs of the Team, it should not be a surprise that some supporters react in a less than optimistic fashion to proclamations of intent by those who have yet to demonstrate that they have a good grasp of the mercurial nature of the expectation and dreams associated with successful a Football Club .
Hail Hail

are many of our players contracts not due to run out 30/06/09?

therefore any potential signings would only be made after this date?

makes sense to me.

balancesheetcscs

Ulster-Celt

Hazybhoy was actually going to give you a call last night, i headed down the Mercantile in the rocks to meet 3 People from the club for a few beers and a chat, but the heavens opened up at 5pm last night just as i walked out the house, so just jumped in 1st taxi i saw and went down rocks. a bit busy this week, but maybe next sunday evening or Monday after work.

ST

Ulster-Celt

The top earners who's contracts are expiring tomorrow are Naka, Big Jan, Hartley & Bobo.

A fair saving on wages but with two key players like Naka and Jan leaving I think we will struggle to find replacements cheaply.

All players are due back on the 1st July so after a few sessions I think BTM might be in a better position to know exactly what he needs.

/Bishop B

while it might be hard for BTM to judge his squad as they are not back, i would have thought he would have been briefed about the strikers stats, therefore he should know that a striker is a priority, followed by a goal scoring midfield player, not sure how many Naka scored in his 4 seasons, but it must have been well above average for a midfield player. Defence is ok for now( but should be improved on) with Caldwell and loovens, Hopefully the Stephen mcmanus experiment( ie playing poor center halfs) is over

ST

ST,

No worries - I'd have had to politely decline anyway. Owed my liver a day off after Friday and Saturday. Catch you after the weekend.

H

Hazybhoy opposite for me, not a drop all weekend, i was choking on sunday night, hence the fast black to the rocks :)

BigSwee on June 29, 2009 8:41 AM

Cheers bud thats clearly sufficient time to get some decent 1st teamers in.

Gordon_J, did you attend the Kano meeting a few weekends ago ? I was wondering what came out of it, apologies if someone's already posted regarding this but I haven't been on much recently and may have missed it.

vmhan
Hail Hail

Silence is golden as far as Celtic is concerned. I get more concerned when we are linked to all and sundry as that usually suggests to me little or nothing will transpire!

Anyone who is a veteran of the 1995 pre-season will know what I'm talking about. David Ginola, Dimitri Radchenko, Marc Degryse, Gordan Petric, Billy McKinlay, Ulf Kirsten...Jesus wept it was horrendous. The media done the club in big-time before we ended up with Andreas Thom.

We have plenty of time for preparing for the season in general and I'm fairly confident we will address the two problem positions, striker and left-back, ahead of the CL Qualifying Round deadline.

What is it with all you Aussies on blog this morning/evening?

Man, you stole trevelyan corn and now your living the high life
on gold coast etc. There is no justice:0)

bigtrainpete - you don't even need to go that far back. After MONs first season were were linked with over 150 players. I might still have the list somewhere. It was shocking.

Land of the Pope and McGrory

I frowned, when I heard both PG and MV give their first interviews for the club, not an easy job with the loyaI circled with sharpened knives. I have neither down as the the devil incarnate and recognize that they are both, only ex Footballer's, not versed in dealing with lazy journalists primed to trip them. Since PG's passionate interview where his made an unskillful mention of Marc Fortune, a very rare admission from a Celtic official in recent times, the press have had a feeding frenzy and 'Celtic Snubbed' though never far away is again, it seems just around the corner.

MV in the main gave a good interview, he may have been briefed to go down the other road, but still goofed with the old football cliche 'no panic buys'. The loyals over at the BBC in particular really liked that one, and duly ran it up the flagpole, with a fair bit of side spin. Many Celtic fans who endured last season, have already concluded that incomers are indeed necessary, and know more about watching the current Celtic squad than either PG or MV, neither of whom of yet to see them practice, let alone play.

IMCO

DamnedifyoudoDamnedifyoudon'tCSC

Will BTM be picking his own Club Captain?

Weeminger - I remember the post-Seville malarky.

Hleb, Juan Fran, Jesuli and any other player who played half decent against us in the UEFA run. McFadden was linked strongly throughout but unbeknown to us we were skint, tried to negotiate a loan deal for him instead only to end-up with Michael Gray on loan right at the transfer deadline.

It came back to bite us royally that freezing night in Lyon where the lack of depth in our squad cost us a CL knock-out stage spot.

But the 1995 pre-season was definately the ground-breaker for the hysteria we now experience every summer!

Celtic Face Extinction After Being Hit With Massive Tax Bill

Raveheart35

I hope so as I think we need a leader on the field. Maybe our current Captain can be "promoted" to club Captain and Tony Mowbray could appoint a new team Captain.

I don't see anyone capable of filling this role at present maybe GC if he is staying at the club.

Raveheart, I also forgot to mention that we had a Blackpool shammy do a few weekends ago, it was a good night with two different acts on. I'll let you know the next time bud.

vmhan
Hail Hail

Funny how the press are reporting Celtic lose out on Fletcher to Burnley yet conveniently ignore what MV said last week re. the player. It also seems that all the speculation at the moment, other than Fortune, is for players linked during Strachan's time. I would suspect that, as usual, they haven't a clue what is happening at CP re. transfers and most of what they're 'reporting' is nonsense.
I would expect the first signing, possibly more, to be announced this week and over the next couple of weeks we will see 2 or 3 more. We will also see the exodus of several players over the next couple of weeks with VOH & Boruc being the first out of the door.

By Raveheart35 on June 29, 2009 11:33 AM

As i'm hoping the current club captain is one of those on the way out of the club then the answer has to be yes. I think Caldwell will be offered captaincy as part of new extended deal.

Would prefer Boruc to stay and hope that our other Pole in the goal can help him settle down into the player we know he can be.

Agree re. Jan and may be best for all.

Also would add that Caldwell seemed to be more of a captain on the park that Big Mick. Mixed feelings on that one.

new article posted.

Gary67,

expect the usual laptop Summer agitation.

Stingy biscuit tin Celtic failing to complete deals and valiant Rangers holding off the EPL big boys for their star players. Minty and the Cardihun only relenting for "silly" "crazy" "exorbitant" "unrefusable offers" etc. These journalists are the modern day court jesters. Once Rangers go through a repeat of last winters - everything for sale but no takers ... the picture will become clearer.

I think it more important that TM properly assesses what we have already before we have another era of mix and match patchwork. Two players for every position considering he may want to play alternative formations dependent on the opposition

I´m prepared to sacrifice a run in Europe if our youth conveyor belt springs into action. Play the bhoys in the cups from the offset. If we can give the Youth Academy a shot in the arm ..its the way to go.

HAil HAil

Swindon Advertiser reports that Simon Cox is off to WBA for £2m. Also says he was watched last season by TM and MV personally last season. The guy scored 32 times last year in a piss-poor team.

Now,I'm not saying that's the level we should be loking at,but he did score TWICE as many goals as Fletcher and Fortune combined. So maybe they're not the level we should be looking at either.

Oh,and for anyone arguing that he wasn't considered good enough by Steve Coppell(Reading)-neither was Stan Collymore when they were at Palace,and he turned out to be a pretty good player!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/scotland/8131582.stm