With 26 career goals, 25 of which came in a Dundee United shirt, £1.5m sounds a tad generous for Nadir Ciftci. Celtic’s earlier offer of £900k sounds more like the mark but Wigan have validated United’s target price with a deal with meets their requirements, if not that of the player’s.
Is he a player to improve Celtic? Quite possibly, he’ll bring something we don’t have at the moment – a sticky out ball – but it’s a big ask to expect him to step up to Champions League levels. Signing that level of player might take Champions League money, but we’ll need to get there first, which is why we need to bolster the attack quickish.
Two years ago we talked about the number of senior games a good player is able to make before he’s noticed by those to rich and lazy to do as much low-level research Celtic must do to unearth a gem.
Victor Wanyama made 51 appearances before becoming a Celtic player, Virgil van Dijk made 62. It’s likely both spent the bulk of those games without anyone paying much attention to them, Celtic’s scouts are likely to have been alerted when they have little more than a dozen or so games left at their previous clubs.
Ciftci’s made 67 senior appearances. If he has what it takes, the world will know about it sooner rather than later.
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HH!!
Who will be the also rans this year. I fancy the Dons for 2nd, Utd for 3rd, Hearts next.
Really
Silver medal
Vintage 67..Aberdeen are a Penalty kick for Best of the Rest, After that i Think Inverness ..
Thank you CQNrs for yer wonderful-heartfelt-wishes-well-dones-etc….
As I said….the battle goes on but…it will go on in the back ground….so, no more light to be shone on that subject….thanks.
L-O-V-E You ALL……oot. YNWA
Kalimera
Well done the ole Greeks!
Eurochamps67
BGX
I don’t want to see the OF poison back, but the Jambos’ games will be lively and they would be a decent alternative to the Sevconartists.
The Ole Celtic Scouting Net doesn’t shrink to fit inferior strikers….does it???
Seems we scoured the planet and come up with Ciftci???
Far and Wide CSC
Ciftci will score goals in the SPFL. I’m not convicted he has enough for Europe yet.
Still, if he came from the Championship with that scoring record he’d probably be valued at £4M.
been chuntering away to myself on the last blog!
@starry plough
Leigh Griffiths is the best striker we’ve signed lately. I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a player with a proven SPFL record for the prices discussed.
What will the Daily Rascal say?
Top 4 SPFL championship:
QoS, Hibs, St. Mirren, Falkirk would do me.
Oh…….have I missed anyone?……….Don’t think so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brggk0nxOQg
No a bad player
timaloy29
There’s the rub mate, we have a proven SPFL scorer in the ranks and very good he is to, rather than turn my nose up at Ciftci who from what Inhale seen is decent if nothing else, my question is how far and how wide is our legendary scouting system, as far as Dundee??
Does it extend to Czech republic or Bosnia or Serbia or even Switzerland??
Seems we have changed tack to signing players from our league, could work and can’t be any worse than our recent efforts.
Speaking for myself I can’t see Leigh Griffiths bothering many Euro defences, that may sound harsh but that’s what I think and in Ciftci we would have another CL virgin.
I didn’t see the game on the weekend but it sounded like we got pumped by a mid table Czech team, okay friendly game but these are the teams we will be playing in a few weeks:))
HH
Spat ma tea oot P67 :-<
"Is he a player to improve Celtic? Quite possibly, he’ll bring something we don’t have at the moment – a sticky out ball…"
I know we need a striker with baws. But wasn't expecting a sticky out ball.
Hate to sound like a broken record but I wonder if we should sign young John McGinn. He has always impressed me.
Free transfer who would likely get a loan deal to somebody like Hibs. Send him with McGeouch.
Sorry for the lengthy repost
By James MacMillan History Last updated: August 26th, 2010
108 Comments Comment on this article
Celtic fans in Seville Photo: Getty
Celtic fans in Seville Photo: Getty
The country was astonished and sickened this week at the news that a Catholic priest in Ireland, Fr James Chesney, had been involved in murderous IRA activities at the height of the Troubles in the 1970s. Those of us of an Hiberno-Catholic inclination in Scotland have seen this sort of thing before. A similar scandal erupted in Glasgow at about the same time, involving a Fr Bartholomew Burns.
Most Catholics in the west of Scotland can claim origins in Ireland. The Catholic culture here is imbued with the memories of those roots, for good and for ill. During the Troubles in Ulster, emotions and anxieties ran high here, as relatives were caught up in the mayhem and violence. It was inevitable that Catholics in these parts would take sides with the Civil Rights Movement, and their republican politics. In earlier phases of the Nationalist/British struggle many of our relatives took part. After WWI, my grandfather’s cousin fled from Ireland to hide with the Scottish branch of the family in Ayrshire. This man sat with a cocked revolver behind the front door expecting the police to catch up with him at any time. I think he had probably shot some Black and Tan soldiers. One morning he was gone. A postcard from Pittsburgh finally arrived, and that branch of the family have been there ever since.
My other grandfather was a Black and Tan! The two branches of the family could, at one time, have faced each other across the barricades, and cancelled each other out. For my sake, and for my existence, I’m glad they didn’t.
The culture of Glasgow Celtic FC is steeped in this history. It was established by a Marist Brother from Sligo in 1888 to provide charity, sport and entertainment for the urban poor who had settled in the east end of Glasgow in the 19th century. The club was eventually gifted the national flag – the tricolor – from the Irish Republic for the work they had done for Irish immigrants in Scotland. The culture of the club and its supporters, even today, is Irish as well as Scottish. Mostly, this is something worth celebrating. However, the suspicion persists that there is still stubborn support for extremist Irish politics among some of the fans. I would bet anything that Fathers Chesney and Burns were Celtic fans, like me.
In the continual bickering with their ancient enemies, Rangers FC, the accusations fly as to who has the most sectarian set of fans. The chants from the Rangers fans have a distinctly anti-Catholic edge, attacking the Pope and aspects of the faith. The Celtic fans counter that their songs have nothing to do with religion, but are political in nature. But hatred is hatred, and it doesn’t matter what initial instigation and shape it has. I have always celebrated the Irish culture from which I grew, but I have always been appalled at the ease with which many fellow Celtic fans were able to bestow their support on the IRA.
In the 1970s Scottish and English football was blighted by the entryism of the extreme Right. The NF and later the BNP would distribute their propaganda quite freely outside many grounds. In Scotland the most eager takers for this kind of fascist filth were the Rangers and Hearts fans. In contrast, the Celtic fans would pride themselves on the presence of the extreme Left at Celtic Park, in the shape of various Trotskyist and Sinn Fein lobbyists. Some sanctimonious Hoops supporters would even argue that their Leftism was the true modern heir of the charitable activities of the club’s Marist founder, Brother Walfrid. This clutch of values has led many Celtic fans into supporting the IRA’s murderous collaborators in other conflicts, including Hamas and Catalan and Basque separatists.
When Celtic faced FC Hapoel of Tel Aviv recently, the Scottish TUC organized a huge anti-Israeli demonstration at the Glasgow leg, and recruited many eager Celtic fans to wave Palestinian and Hamas flags at the visitors. The sight of my fellow Celtic supporters goading our Jewish guests with anti-Semitic howls and insults was deeply shaming.
With British troops in action in Iraq and Afghanistan, many football clubs invite soldiers on leave to attend as honoured guests. Rangers have made a feature of this. This would be unimaginable at Celtic Park because of the baggage left over from the Troubles. But if Celtic supporters imagine that their team is not without its support in the British Armed forces, they are very much mistaken. In their last European final, in 2003, when Celtic played Porto in Seville, I happened to be working in Germany. I found a pub to watch the game. It was full of British soldiers, Celtic fans to a man.
For the sake of our reputation, Celtic fans need to reflect on the appalling political allegiances that they have made over the years. There is a clear necessity for a radical reassessment of the shadier aspects of Celtic’s “culture”. For a start, my fellow fans could ditch their copies of Socialist Worker and An Phoblacht, and get back to the original values of the club’s Catholic founder. That might mean finding new reading materials – the Gospels, for example. And it would also mean getting back to attending Mass and Confession.
ciftci will do a job for us. he has a good first touch and holds the ball up well.
Agreee Paul67 100%. He will score goals in SPFL. Something that pukki and Balde could never do and they were 5m
For 1.5 take him. We are short at the moment
@starry plough
Don’t worry about friendlies. They are a training match for fitness.
We need more than one striker over the season. It’s likely to be Cifci, Griffiths and maybe somebody with a bit more pedigree once CL qualification is nailed on.
Frindjonsson, Pukki, Balde and Guidetti have all left.
Here’s a striker we should be looking at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33404887
No sticky out baws here …
Aw naw
Anybody else think the Stjarnan manager looks like a young Klopp? Got me worried :-(
timaloy29
Agree aboot the friendlies, my knickers remain untwisted!
In Ronny we trust
Working again on Friday so this pre season has been a wash oot for me so far;.((
timaloy29
10:01 on 6 July, 2015
tonydonnelly67
I don’t think Vossen’s wages were an issue. Burnley won’t be paying him any more than we could afford.
I just don’t think we wanted him. I’ll be happy with Cifci.
I think it was the wages, and I think Burnly will be paying him more, my reason being, I mean honestly, what are you going to win playing with Burnley? Your career is going no where, and you will win nothing, on the other hand your getting well payed, that’s the mind set of today’s modern player, MONEY, on the other hand playing with Celtic is another matter, win lots, and less money, but more enjoyment, in my opinion that is.
Sounds like the tide of opinion is shifting for Ciftci. Ronny and JC seem keen so they obviously think that they can make him into what we need, someone who can hold the ball up front and who knows where the net is.
Good on the Greeks. I don’t blame anyone for Greece’s debt junkie excesses except the Greeks themselves. They have now chosen to deal with it, I wish them the best. They will need money from somewhere so why not pick Greece as your next holiday destination Euro or Drachma. Hail hail to Samaras land.
Morning all.
Tallybhoy.
Had a wee bevy with your friend Mr Doyle recently.
He mentioned the tale about your special welcome to Italy
for a couple of “thems” !
Are you a member of the dark horse csc ?
Catch you when you get back. HH.
Some players come to Celtic and seem overawed , Pukki and David Fernandez spring to mind , others find their home and become legends.
No idea how Nadir Ciftci will get on or if he will sign but he doesn’t strike me to be of the shrinking violet variety .
borgo67
Aye. That guy from Israel. Berkovic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7TdTcwZLTM
tonydonnelly67
What if Burnley is your only option? Celtic and Boro never forked over the money to sign him.
Burnley have just been relegated from the EPL but they have been smart about it. They never sacked their excellent manager Dyche as he never had the funds to keep them up. However, they are back in the championship with a similar squad to the one that got them promoted. Boyd, Lowton & Keane are all nice additions as well.
I think they will bounce right back into the EPL. For all the talk of it being the hardest league to get out of (outside of the Scottish championship of course) quite a few teams have bounced back. QPR, West Ham, Norwich, Newcastle United
Vossen probably thinks he has a good chance of promotion at Burnley. They might even win the championship.
kevjungle
10:06 on 6 July, 2015
You keep on fighting you come across as someone who will never give up. Hail Hail
Your views on Celtic/board have always annoyed me but if what I was told yesterday is true,it seems you have been correct along.
KTF
Much as I respect James McMillan’s courageous comments regarding bigotry in Scotland, his comparison of socialist groups and publications to racists and fascists is way off the mark. Simpletons like mickbhoy use the likes of McMillan to push an anti Celtic agenda. He was a Thatcherite cop ffs.
ger57
Give it a break. Come on. Live and let live.
Celtic were in for Vossen.Agent informed Celtic Burnley were interested. Agent told if he wants to sign for Burnley before Celtic he’s not a player we’re interested in. Well I hope that happened.
lennon passion
2.5 mil in the EPL. He must be pish.
timaloy29
You could be right, time will tell my friend, I mean look at Hooper with Norwich?
Couldn’t cut the mustard.