It always stings when we lose a good one

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It always stings a bit when we lose a good one, and there appears to be universal agreement that Victor Wanyama is a good one, but there are compensations.  We lost him for the asking price (a club and Scottish record) and lost him early enough in the transfer window for the cash to be put to good use. Technical note, £12.5m and freeing up a very small wage will not provide £12.5m for transfers plus wages for either a £12.5m player or a collection of players at that value. It will free up a lesser transfer budget and provide a higher wage budget.

Victor goes with our best wishes.  He joins a club who signed Celtic fringe player (I’m being generous), Jos Hooiveld, two years ago, and who also employ former Celtic misfit, Danny Fox.  It’s not a sexy move but Victor will be as well compensated as Celtic by England’s bling.  There could be claims about the move being about football, but it’s about the money, honey; not that there’s a problem with that, Victor didn’t pack his bags in Nairobi hoping to end his days in Glasgow.

He only became a first choice player after Beram Kayal was injured so comprehensively by Elbows McCulloch and played less than 30 games and was a first team choice for less than a year before declining a contract extension for a substantial wage increase (several times the wages he was on).  This, when he had almost three years left on his existing deal.  There’s a lesson there for future negotiations.

If you are feeling less than happy about this development, I could suggest a reason or two.  Back in the 70s and 80s Macari, Hay, Dalglish, Nicholas and McClair were sold for competitive fees but the Cavalry of reinforcements didn’t arrive.  Instead Celtic hoped a new generation of youths would fill the gap.  Those of us from that generation were condition by the experience.

Things worked differently when Jock Brown was in charge (aye, you read right).  Within a few months we lost the league for the ninth consecutive season and sold the Three Amigos for a substantial amount of money.  In August 1997 I was distraught but 10 months later the penny dropped.  The challenge now for Peter Lawwell, Neil Lennon and the Celtic scouts is to outperform Jock and Wim………….

Easy, right?
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  1. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    LIONROARS67

     

     

    Rod liddle has form on this.

     

     

    A few years back he excoriated Celtic and the fans over the poppy situation.

     

     

    In his column in The Sun,having taken over from Richard Littlejohn on Tuesday.

     

     

    His own personal history of beating up his partner is far worse than any alleged non-patriotic approach from yer nearest friendly TIm.

  2. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    HAMILTON TIM

     

     

    I take it the hospital visit didnae affect yer podium ability?

     

     

    Hope it went well …….

  3. 50 shades of green on

    o well by Vic . you will only know what you’ve done when your hear zadoc the priest blaring out of your new 60″ tv.

  4. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    LEN BRENNAN

     

     

    Give it time,patience….

     

     

     

    The morra would be nice,but halfway through the season will do.

     

     

    Maybe the fifth of November-we can throw some hunnish effigies onto the bonfire as recompense for the Statue of Our Lady which was desecrated last night.

     

     

    Not that I would stoop to their level,mibbe a coupla steak bakes to really p… them off!!!!!!

  5. Paolosboots

     

     

    My fingers are more nimble and agile than my toes.

     

     

    PianistCSC

  6. Paul, I don’t like it even when the less-than-brilliant leave Celtic.

     

     

    Our proximity to England brings many disadvantages, mostly that it inflates the cost of our football at every level (wages, tickets, TV subscription packages) with the same paucity of improvement in quality that our neighbours suffer from.

     

     

    However, it’s also true that we have a ready market for any future Kis and Victors we sign. Aiden to Russia was an exception. England is a ready-made selling ground for us.

  7. ………thank goodness the urra Craig is still “in charge” at the Magnificent Facade………

     

     

     

    Shame On Shortie.

  8. 50 shades

     

     

    Paul’s point was that guys who haven’t made it at Celtic have been first-picks for Southampton. Artur doesn’t come into that category.

  9. 50 shades of green on

    always remember when we sold king kenny to the pool. i was distraut ripped all his pics off my wall. replaced them the next day with pics of Debbie Harry. slept a lot better after that i can tell you.

     

     

    whatever happened to dalglish anyway??.

  10. Celtic First, we are a ready made shop window given our proximity to EPL. However the CL gives them a better opportunity to see how our players cope with the cream of Europe. The last 2 years has shown that if we can get euro football group stages every year then we not only increase the value of our players but we the fans can play our part in making celtic a viable option for promising young players its a win win for us. I bet with the economic meltdown in Europe our wages & contracts are now more attractive to those who would not have considered Scotland in the past. We are well run financially and hope the powers that be have learned that investment is the way forward no penny pinching.

  11. Steinreignedsupreme on

    NegAnon2 11:58 on 12 July, 2013

     

     

    I’m not sure Celtic lack ambition. We have sold a very good player, but Victor is not so important to the team that we will collapse without his presence.

     

     

    I am disappointed Victor has gone, but in my time supporting Celtic we have lost much better players and survived. And it is worth remembering he decided to go – he could have stuck it out at Celtic if he wanted to. If Victor wanted to play in the Champions League he would have stayed.

     

     

    Like you have already alluded – we are in an environment where we can’t turn down £12m for a player two years after he arrived for £900,000.

     

     

    It’s excellent business and common sense to accept the offer. Celtic have a good system in place on finding promising players. They don’t all work out (because no club can be 100% successful in recruitment) but we have enough resources at the club to qualify for the Champions League without Victor.

  12. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    PAUL67

     

     

    That is a rather contentious finish to your article.

     

     

    The only reason we got the money for those players,IMO,is because Brown was in charge and they wanted out.

     

     

    Like the Centenary Season ten years earlier,when most of our best players left,we were f….d.

     

     

    Brown had nothing to do with it. Again,IMO.

     

     

    WE WERE GARBAGE IN THE MONTHS BEFORE WE LEFT,the day he chucked it,we won 6-0.

  13. 50 shades of green on

    Celtic first.

     

     

     

    A never picked up on that point. just thought i had missed Artur being sold.

     

     

    Doh.

  14. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on

    50 shades of green

     

     

    12:18 on 12 July, 2013

     

    always remember when we sold king kenny to the pool. i was distraut ripped all his pics off my wall. replaced them the next day with pics of Debbie Harry. slept a lot better after that i can tell you.

     

     

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     

     

     

    So you hadn’t reached puberty then?

  15. paolosboots

     

    12:19

     

     

    I agree with you, but if the majority of our potential ‘customers’ (yeuch), that is the English clubs that are awash with money, are the least bit interested in the CL potential and experience of our Bhoys, it can only be for sell-on purposes as they are never going to get a sniff of football at that level.

  16. Best of luck Victor and thanks for your sterling effort. I hope you will keep fond memories of your time in Paradise.

     

    Let’s hope we get as good again and our scouts pick up some other young raw talent for us to develop and turn into more profit. I’d love for us to be able to keep these guys but reality suggests differently sadly.

     

     

    Hail Hail

     

    KINGLuBO

  17. BMCUW

     

     

    Patience isn’t a virtue I was blessed with my friend.

     

    Guess I’ll have to substitute this with beer and watching the golf. ;)

     

     

    Hope it’s sooner rather than later!

     

     

    HH

     

    /Bishop B

  18. 49 days o the windae left, we usually take two weeks from first whiff of a signing…

     

    that’s 3-4 players worth of time.

     

     

    And a sunny fair Friday…what the *-/? is goin on?

  19. Celtic First, i suppose it comes down to money for the EPL clubs, what i hope is that every player who comes to celtic is inducted properly and learns that we are more than a club. I think as long as we are in Scotland we have to be more imaginative in terms of income, some good moves about a bar for fans in the stand, new hotel, i mentioned a chain of celtic bars yesterday along the lines of the Irish bars which have trailblazed this avenue for us , and that have merchandising units as part of them. They only become celtic bars when matches are on, other than that operate as Irish/Scottish bars the remainder of that time. Its a cash business and with 9m fans worldwide then we should be able to open in area where we have a strong csc, expat diaspora.

  20. lightinsanity67 on

    I liked Wanyama as a player. He seems to have a good personality too. Good luck to him. I hope Kayal comes good as Neil suggests. However I think the midfield needs strengthened.

  21. Stein ok lets see what they do with the money – paul is already trying to manage our ezpectations as ever.

     

     

    A stor moneyball is actually a perfect example of what I mean. The moneyball system was pretty successful up to a point. But didn’t deliver a the big prizes. Any system slavishly followed has the same effect. Just ask barca fans.

     

     

    Celtic need to mix it up. But they won’t and when we don’t qualify for the cl watch the wailing and gnashing of teeth.

  22. Is it bad to hope for a close result at Cliftonville in order to make the home leg A Big Night?

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