The defence has seen most additions. Jozo Simunovic, Saidy Janko and Dedryck Boyata arrived, with Tyler Blackett on loan from Manchester United. Belgian, Logan Bailly, came in as our backup keeper after a decent career in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
Two attacking midfielders were signed: Scott Allan, who has made a couple of cameo appearances, and Ryan Christie, who will further gestate in Inverness until the end of the season.
Nadir Ciftci was the manager’s primary striking target, and although he arrived early in the window, his start has been hampered by a six game domestic ban, while the Champions League qualifiers arrived too early for him. A lot of store is being placed on his and Leigh Griffiths’ shoulders.
Will they be stronger than the Griffiths, Scepovic, Guidetti offering of last season? Will they be good enough for the challenge ahead? Place your bets ladies and gentlemen (and opposed to send me inappropriately emotional messages).
I read lots of comment about Steven Fletcher or and Michu potentially coming to Celtic over the last few days. They were players who Celtic enquired about earlier in the window but neither was interested in coming to Scotland. They are in the league they want to play in, we were not remotely on their radar.
Oh, and the van Dijk deal was for £13m, not the £11.5m reported earlier. Think we might have some Fraser/Victor reflected value in this deal.
That’s all folks!
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Ellboy,
Could I correct you on one point in your post? Scott Allan was no bog standard player in the SFL. He was the best.
If I remember correctly John Hughes (Yogi) came from the Junior leagues!
Respect!
Premier League: Transfer window proves richest ever at £870m
The summer transfer window was the richest in Premier League history as total spending for the calendar year reached £1bn for the first time.
Summer outlay passed £870m, 4% up on the record set last year.
The biggest spenders, Manchester City, paid the two biggest fees, £55m for Kevin De Bruyne from Wolfsburg and £49m for Raheem Sterling from Liverpool.
Manchester United’s £36m signing of Monaco teenager Anthony Martial was the biggest deadline-day move.
That fee could rise to £58m with a number of incentive-based add-ons.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sadly, the EPL is leaving Scottish football light years behind. Celtic were ALWAYS a selling club to the likes of M.Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal, but now we are having to sell to clubs that most Celtic supporters still think of as smaller than us (Norwich and Southampton). We have to wake up to reality.
very disappointed with this transfer window, mainly due to the fact that out of all our signings there is no player that you could say is an experienced pro (maybe shift key could just fall into this bracket)
so, since last season we have lost VVD, Jason, Guidetti, Skepovic (who was not really given much of a chance), Henderson is no longer available this season, Anto seems to be largely ignored by RD.
Aberdeen on the other hand have made 3 excellent signings and should be a tougher team to beat this season and have not been losing goals, i really cant see us picking up 12 points from them this season and plenty other teams will be set up to play against our one dimensional system, there is no plan B when things are not working
I fear this league and 5 in a row is going to be a long tough slog
we could have and should have been a million miles out of sight from the govan reincarnatio but, 2 CL failures (100% down to PL taking a gamble) have curtailed that….. instead their return next year will see them far closer to us than many think.
The transfer window turns many CQNrs more depressive than they were.
Sack the transfer Window!
8 new bits of bling to work with but its the wrong kind of bling or it was bought at the start of the sales so it does not count as a recent gift, and I really wanted a diamond studded nose ring that I could wear right up front and centre, even though I have two perfectly functional nose rings already and have been given several pieces of cheek and ear jewellery to keep me busy.
One wee conundrum: How come if we complain that we lose ties to teams with a fraction of our riches, the solution is to spend more? And why would we enter the CL at all as we will face, at least two, teams who have spent sums which dwarf ours?
Aff into work
PADDY GALLAGHER on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2015 8:33 AM
Great wee day to be a Celtic man, lots of ins and outs and that’s just the Govan Police Station.
#####
Presumably all the tipsters who were hanging around Ross Hall have decamped the mile or so up the road to Helen Street.
It will be interesting to see how the words club and company are used in any indictment that might be served.
The whole omnishambles surrounding the huns over the last few years has been like a job creation scheme for lawyers
Any time I saw Scepovic play I was puzzled by just why other players could NEVER find him with a pass? The guy took up good positions, ran off the ball and scored a couple of one touch goals.
But to be honest there were games when it was more likely that some of our players would pass the ball to me than to Scepovic.
Wow eight signings, young players hungry to play for the hoops. Can’t wait to see what this team evolves into. Sorry that the SAD syndrome has affected so many hoops, this blog is full of permaragers who must be looking to fill a gap left by the deluded buns. Yeah I know that you pays your ticket and can scream abuse at your team but seriously you will enjoy life more if you take your chill pills and just try to get behind the bhoys tha have come to paradise to play for the Glasgow Celtic. Stop whinning and take some pleasure in being a Celtic supporters. Griff and Ciftci will score a barrow load in the SPFL and we will ship very few goals. The treble is on. C’mon the hoops.
Didn’t scroll back as I want to go to golf in good mood. Had myself convinced we would get or loan a new striker particularly when Scep went so I was very disappointed when we didn’t.
Apart from that my main worry is that we need time to bed what we have and we don’t have time.
Jozo, Blackett, Boyata & Janko are all newbies and they all need to hit the ground running if we are to achieve anything. Midfield is fine and we do have lads there who can score & help out the front men.
I would love if we had 3 or 4 bread & butter games against mid table SPFL teams coming up but we don’t, we have 7 games in 3 weeks including Aberdeen, Hearts, Ajax & Fernabache. Hang on to your hats Bhoys the Celtic Rollercoaster is on full throttle, at least it wont be boring.
Disappointed in not signing another striker but they do not grow on trees and signing one for the sake of it ultimately ends up in tears for us. Scepovic was a mistake, he only signed for us because Getafe pulled out at the last minute. We should have pulled out of that one when it was obvious that his head was elsewhere.
Maybe we should have splurged out on Falcao or had him on loan as he doesn’t seem to be doing much these days.
Celtic this season in the SPFL; For 16; Against 6. Deduction? We are desperately in need of a goal-scorer.
Aberdeen fans must be desperate for a defender!
“No level of spin from CQN puppets can change the facts”
PF mentioned `debate` last night. The comment immediately above is an example of the level of debate I feel is prevalent on CQN of late.
JJ
PS To make it clear, PF did not make the above comment nor would he.
Ernie,
It took me months to find a firm of commercial lawyers in Scotland to progress Res 12.
There are fewer and fewer independent Scottish firms as they are all closing or merging – the latest being McLure Naismith who went into Admin last week.
Everywhere I went there was a potential conflict of interest as asomewhere along the line they were involved in “The Rangers Thing” acting for individuals, companies, insureres, banks, investors, The SFA, The SPFL, Players, Players agents , The Revenue, a creditor or whoever.
Absolute bloddy nightmare and as you say a whole industry wrapped up in one!
And it is far from over!
CELTIC CHAMPS ELECT.
Truffles ?
Very rare in Sicily but black ones are found @ Nebrodi on Mt Etna.Huge money !.I have no contacts in the world of truffle hunting.People
pay mega money for dogs descended from dogs with a good record of truffle finding.
You can buy truffles on line..I don’t like truffles / Mrs S of T loves them almost as much as she loves shoes.
Sftb
Many on here don’t say ‘spend more’.
They (me among them on this occasion) say ‘spend better’ up front.
This time we’ve avoided by any more projects or failures up front by buying ….. nobody! (Cifti excepted for a variety of reasons)
HH jamesgang
Paul67
We are in such decline and losing previously long standing loyal fans.
Why?
Many reasons ,but the key one is now that the current strategy is KILLING ALL HOPE of us building a side that can to improve the football team on a consistent basis.
We have publicly declared that as soon as you are good enough Celtic will sell you.
When HOPE dies ,death follows.
We need a change ,we have been on this withering path for too long.
We have fallen so far that the Aberdeen head to head fixtures now decide the title race.
If we can’t get into English football then the focus must change to lobbying and pressurising UEFA FOR CHANGE.
TT
Celtic Champs Elect
Everyone on here want us to be the best in the world. Financially that’s not going to happen, but there is nothing wrong in wanting to be better. I wish that I could be satisfied by being a Celtic fan, but I want more.
I would like good football and some heroes on the park.
Having a different opinions doesn’t make anyone a clown.
Speyside Lhad,
You are right in the respect that we have been losing goals. But has Ronny not addressed that in this transfer window? It remains to be seen how our new defence set up will set up a brick wall but at least we are trying.
Not signing a new striker on the other hand is a mystery.
I take a wee bit of comfort in Jock Steins philosophy that he expected goals to come from every player in the team (except the goalie). we have had a few very important goals from defenders in the recent past. Not backtracking on my disappointment regards striker signings, just trying to make myself feel better!
When it comes to Celtic, I’m very positive.
BUT….
PJBHOYNYC’s post at 4:19 AM and PFAYR statement at 4:42 AM:
“Who is for sale next season….?? That’s the only strategy we’ve got …. “
Are pretty much bang on the money.
Not only does the CL bring riches into our club but it’s obviously a bargaining tool to attract players who would not consider coming to the Scottish game otherwise. Players that we keep for a couple of years then sell on for considerable profit.
Well we’re in danger of not only missing out on CL revenue but also EL revenue too in future seasons going by the alarming football slide were experiencing.
IF that happens, then it really is trouble. What potentially sell-able players to the EPL will be attracted then?
The board must care, I cannot accept that all they think about is profit, that’s too simple a conclusion to come to.
Blaming limited revenue in the Scottish game is too simplistic too. Teams that are troubling us in European qualifiers are not ‘Sky’ funded. Perhaps they do play in more technically gifted leagues though. Is Sweden one of those?
It’s time for a re-think before it’s too late or if Ronny & a large pool of ‘potential’ 20 something’s is the re-think, just think of the pressure coming their way next qualifiers.
ernie lynch at 8:45 said:
“It will be interesting to see how the words club and company are used in any indictment that might be served.”
Indeed it will , ernie. It will also be interesting how those two words are then reported in the MSSM.
JJ
Brogan Rogan Trevino and Hogan supports Oscar Knox, MacKenzie Furniss and anyone else who fights Neuroblastoma on 2nd September 2015 8:50 am – See more at: http://www.celticquicknews.co.uk/thats-all-folks/comment-page-7/#comments
TinyTim on 2nd September 2015 8:51 am
The common theme in those two posts is that Scotland is small and getting smaller as capital accumulates into larger and larger lumps in fewer and fewer hands.
3 years in a row that we have not improved team before CL quailiers,,got very laucky 2 years ago…treid same last year…we only needed a 0-0 at home to go through..one decent midfielder ..oh he took of kayal at half time…. then this year same again ..a team no better than aberdeen.. needed a goal scorer bought someone who scores fewer than stokes and those included penalties…. oh and he was banned so couldn’t have a settled team to play in… apalling..then to sell Scepovic and ny half decent youngster out on loan…. ashocking
there is more and more players out of contract these days that a striker could still be brought in.whats to say simunovic will not turn out to be a better player than van dijk.never heard so much negativity on here last night.think people forget aberdeen finished 17 yes thats 17 points behind celtic last season.aberdeen and hearts will take points off each other beacause they are evenly matched but wont take many points off celtic,think people are forgetting stokes is still at the club,so its three strikers not two at the club.
Paul67 etal.
Everyone is calling out for a striker,it’s as if we haven’t any, I thought we had three,but never mind anything to have a good moan about Celtic.
I was disappointed the way the blog went in the last few days,are these people that were posting really Celtic supporters.
You should have taken up the striking roll, you have the power to do so, Strike off the people that come on here just to cause trouble, I was always against censoring peoples comments, didn’t like it, but the last few days I’ve been converted, You have the power to become a good striker.
TINYTIM on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2015 8:51 AM
Paul67
We are in such decline and losing previously long standing loyal fans.
Why?
Many reasons ,but the key one is now that the current strategy is KILLING ALL HOPE of us building a side that can to improve the football team on a consistent basis.
We have publicly declared that as soon as you are good enough Celtic will sell you.
When HOPE dies ,death follows.
We need a change ,we have been on this withering path for too long.
We have fallen so far that the Aberdeen head to head fixtures now decide the title race.
If we can’t get into English football then the focus must change to lobbying and pressurising UEFA FOR CHANGE.
TT
……………………………
Sorry TT but it is wrong to say that the Aberdeen fixtures decide the title race. These fixtures provided us with all 12 points last season. However, we won the league by 17 points. So if we’d only taken 6 points from the fixtures and they had taken 6 points, we would still have won the League by 5 points.
So the Window has shut and we can look forward to – same arguments, same time, same place 31/01/2016!
What to make of it?
The Defence positives: beefed-up, height, pace – negatives: completely inexperienced.
Midfield positives: 2 young POTY projects at little cost (a yardstick to measure likely potential as opposed to some previous projects) – negatives: lightweight and inexperienced.
Attacking – Midfield from Broonie to the-one-up-front all lightweight, lacking steel (bar Broonie), little collective craft or guile and in the main inexperienced (bar Commons in the twilight of his career).
Strikeforce positives: LG on-form – negatives: LG lightweight – Ciftci unproven. Both lack experience at a higher level and are handcuffed to one-dimensional tactics.
Without access to wage figures – a dozen+ went out the door and 8 came in (by my reckoning a likely nett saving on wages?) Outgoings = £15M – Incomings = £8M = £7M Surplus!
So I ask myself why was circa £3.5M not spent on a Striker?
Assuming 5/6 experienced 1st Team players (and a beefed-up back 4) – this has to be collectively; the least experienced, lightweight, young squad about to take the field (from memory) in my 60+ years of watching Celtic!
From MON to now – it’s almost as if we’ve flat-lined in player recruitment. Maybe R.D. will prove me wrong and produce a second crop akin to the Quality Street Kids – I won’t hold my breath!
H!H!
For those who are concerned about the centre forward position apparently Logan Bailly scored 8 goals as backsie keeper in the under 9s so thats another option up front.
And our new centre half is apparently a Tom McAdam type – centre half one week, centre forward the next.
Options all over the park CSC
Very light up top no matter how much Ciftci improves. RD must get more goals from Midfield. I hope we don’t drop points again this season with 25 shots ON target and 1 goal. Not good enough. Will only have ourselves to blame again. Spin Mr Paul you know it and so do I. Seasons of failed strikers has been cured by not signing any. Surely if our targets didn’t want to come early in the transfer window we had a plan B?
We were weak last season with the 3 players you mentioned and we are even weaker now. We are in for a long season I fear, But I hope I am wrong as always.
Good Morning Bhoys,
KLV
Taurangabhoy on 2nd September 2015 8:48 am – “we will ship very few goals”
=====================================================================
6 league games played and 6 goals shipped….. Kilmarnock (2), ICT (2), Dundee Utd (1), St Johnstone (1)
6 CL qualifiers played and 5 goals shipped….. UMF Stjarnan (1), Malmo (2), Malmo (2),
These 12 games saw us ship 11 goals while VVD was playing, now he has gone you think we will ship very few goals. sorry mhate but I fail to see your reasoning that all of a sudden we will suddenly stop losing goals.?
Jimthetim53 – time will tell if Ronny has addressed this, i would have been more comfortable if we had a proven CB signed, one who was known to be a leader on the pitch and help the younger / inexperienced around him. as for the striker situation….. proof (i think) that Ronny will never deviate from his one up front system. hopefully the Turk will be a great signing but has to sort out his discipline, if he’s banned and LG injured what then.? the ‘throw VVD up front when desperate for a goal option is gone’
Tinytim,
Well said. When the Board and fans are sickening loyal fans there is something seriously wrong.
I have 3 season tickets and the only reason I will go is to take my sons to the game. If they cannot make it I will give it a miss.
I am glad my sons are into golf , so that they don’t have to rely on Celtic for their weekend sporting fix too much.
Celtic should be in a completely different place if we had a proper strategy which includes purchase of experience. Of course as a football team a striker would do come in handy. Now we can see why Lenny and Johann were exasperated at the barriers Lawwell put in their way ( altho Lenny showed no real interest in youth).
It’s quite clear Lawwell will continue on his one man wrecking show of Celtic with a spineless Delia. Bad results will mean Delia will be sacked and Dermot will have his wish to appoint Keane. Keane does not have a great track record , however managing Celtic in Scotland is a straightforward gig. I would love to see Lawwell try his nonsense with Keane. Keane would chase the Bonus Thief with one steely stare.
My prediction is that Ronny will be sacked before Christmas and Keane will be Manager in the January transfer window. Keane versus Lawwell …..it’s the lesser of the two…
MARRAKESH EXPRESS on 2ND SEPTEMBER 2015 8:32 AM
We’re well aware of how certain things can be arranged in smoke filled back rooms. The 5 way agreement? LNS carve up overlooked?
How about keeping the SPFL competitive ‘for the sake of Scottish fitba’ and more importantly a nice even contest next season when Dermot’s much loved ‘old firm’ get back together?
Don’t write it off. If PL is being told to work to those orders he’s spineless, and should move on. If not, it looks to me like he’s taking on the fans and when that happens there will only be one winner.
Or perhaps I’m being paranoid and it’s just another gamble by Lawwell that the peasants can like or lump.
——–
1000% KAAAA-RECT
Been saying this since 2009 when deid club financial woes arose.
Tiny Tim I agree that this is a withering path that we are taking. I live in hope that we get lucky and find a branch off that path.
We now face another season almost exactly the same as last. However if we need to sell another 10million plus player we will struggle.
Bitton may be the best hope or Griff if he doesn’t get injured. Terrible to be thinking that Simunovic was bought for the shop window at Celtic Park. We are the bargain backstreet shop window and we market ourselves as that to the Premiership. We have given up being smarter than them and buying good players. Instead we buy by age and potential. Celtics turnover is now 15% player sales and about 30% ticket sales. One competes with the other and there is a coordinate where both lines on the graph meet that illustrates a point of failure.
I can’t see how we get out of this mess unless the manager can work in an environment with a turnover of 16 players per season. There is a core to work with that won’t be sold of course and my hope is that Gordon can go on for 3 or 4 years with Armstrong replacing brown as captain. Commons has another year left again. Mulgrew is a squad player. The midfield needs sorted out and the striker position has been well covered.
I disagree on Aberdeen. They beat everybody but Celtic last season. There’s nothing Celtic can do about that. Celtic lost 5 points by this stage but had a reasonable points return when compared to the average at the end of it. Celtic don’t have an SPL problem yet. Btw your statement on that is the same as when Rangers were around.
Interesting that we have bought players from Dundee United, ICT and Hibs but not from Aberdeen It will be interesting to see what happens in January window should Ryan Jack or the likes perform well.
So with Sunderland signing USA Rightback Yedlin, does that make Matthews 3rd choice?
He’ll definitely get into the Wales side now.
Why would Roy Keane come to Celtic, when he knows he wouldn’t have access to the same funds that are available at the English clubs where he’s been employed?
One steely stare at the budget is all it would take I think.
Personally, I wouldn’t have him in any position of authority at Celtic Park.
Though the events unfolding at the devildome are fun, Don’t let it distract you from the fact we are not being treated well from our business i mean club. Quality down, heads down, and wages down no matter how much we make, Mental to treat your customers sorry life blood so poorly. I would say the plan is SPFL quality team with all our money and resources is criminal. Take out Bitton and there is not much between us and the best picks of the SPFL. The waiting game by our club only backs the 5 way agreement knowledge. We should be light years ahead of everyone in the country. Shot ourselves in the foot season in season out since the cheats got outed.
KLV
Latchford
agreed that Keane would stand up to Lawell.
If he were in charge and went to DD personally and said (for example) we need to spend at least 3-4 million on a proved striker, not a prospect, even if that means no sell on value. we also need a commanding CB, proven to be a leader and organiser, again if it means no sell on value then so be it
would DD give Keane what he asks for.?
Allgreen on 2nd September 2015 8:52 am
Celtic Champs Elect
Everyone on here want us to be the best in the world. Financially that’s not going to happen, but there is nothing wrong in wanting to be better. I wish that I could be satisfied by being a Celtic fan, but I want more
I would like good football and some heroes on the park.
Having a different opinions doesn’t make anyone a clown.
There is a big difference in what you are saying as to what the constant NEGS spout day in day out it gets boring after 4 years. We don’t have the money to be the best in the world the league we play in does not allow it so we just have to live with it and get on by supporting the team and backing the board.
The utter drivel spouted by the Negativity clowns is a red neck to genuine Celtic fans.
South of Tunis – Thanks for the reply will try and source online.
Ernie,
There is an urgent need for some real rebel rousing among the smaller leagues in Europe.
UEFA is no longer representative or even pretending to be representative of all the leagues and here there and everywhere there are Blatter and Platini like blazer types who are only interested in the junkett!
The TV revenue tail wags the dog and the Superclubs have grabbed on to the fact that they must row down money river to go with the flow leaving everyone else in the smaller boats.
Clubs around Europe need to look at their business model wholly differently and with completely different specs on.
Yesterday I used the word “innovation” and someone took it to mean working harder for less etc etc.
I am not blaming anyone for holding that point of view but it masks the fact that few people realise what innovation and original thinking actually mean.
So let me give you the most obvious example.
Celtic Football club have the innovative instincts of bottle of fresh air/
How do I know?
Well here we all are – apparently thousands and thousands of us — logging in, lurking and posting away on a blog that was started by a young fella with an IT business some 12 – 13 years ago.
Did Celtic have anyone within the official ranks with the savvy to start a blog?
Eh — Naw!
Let’s then take the people who blog on here. They come together for social events, racing events, golfing events, fund raising events and so on, thus proving that if you create a virtual or physical forum for Celtic fans to come together then they will and where they do there is money.
There have been gatherings everywhere from Fife to Australia in differing sizes.
Have Celtic harnassed a single penny out of that? Not really – other than at CQ10 and 11 where there was a function at Celtic Park.
How much CQN money has passed over the counter of the Blane Valley? Or McChuiils? Or the Admiral?
In those 12 years, digital interaction has changed. Broadcasting ( both corporate and personal ) has changed.
Other than the Kerrydale Suite opening before matches ( a recent phenomenon ) or the investors lounges which can only be accessed at a premium is there a coffee shop outside the ground at Celtic park? Naw
Is there prematch entertainment on the pitch. Naw
The stadium is a great vast hulk of a building which remains unused 98% of the time – can that be remedied?
Do the board do anything to tap into the vast army of fans in an around West Central Scotland ( the area immediately surrounding the stadium ) to foster the notion of a “people’s club” and so make any kind of business offer to those people other than on match days? Naw
In the late 70’s Ipswich town had more kids running around Glasgow wearing their strips than Celtic and Rangers put together. Both Glasgow clubs were slow and too dumb to see that natural talent and opportunity were being stolen from under their nose by better organised and better run businesses.
Today it is the same thing.
We can moan about signings, we can moan about the ideology of the manager on the pitch but unless someone addresses the urgent need for a root and branch upheaval of the Celtic business and its objectives – footballing and otherwise – we are all watching a fossil which had its day may a year ago.
let me be plain, some things are done well — but there is no point in doing the wrong thing well and not doing the right thing at all.
Our board and controllers are too inward looking, reactionary as opposed to progressive and pre-emptive, and lacking in a forward thinking plan that should be looking 5 to 10 years in advance.
Had the ancestors of the current Celtic board been presented with a new invention called the wheel they would probably have tried to eat it!
Ronny seems to have done a variable amount of homework in terms of the 8 players brought into the club, and over to him now to weave them into his team over the coming months. I think the squad needed some new heads given the Malmo performance causing some of the old ones to drop.
Speaking of heads, I can’t get mind round the Ciftci signing. Best I can do is give Ronny the time to turn him into a Celtic striker, hopefully more Cadete than Pukki. Saying that, I’m not holding my breath, and I expect Griffiths will be given every opportunity to run away with the Top Goalscorer award.
(Aside, “Goalscorer” was mistyped as “Galscorer”, a touch of Freud perhaps. Let’s trust it doesn’t turn into “Gaolscorer” once the PF has finished the case against him.)
Elsewhere, and apropos nothing at all, if the CQN clever clogs are looking in, Malceye for example, does the Law allow the transfer of the property in the goods when a sales transaction is held to be fraudulent?
All the fun.
I do believe that even a club in liquidation had more activity yesterday than a certain 3 year old plucky, cash strapped southside club…
Wonder if Ashley WILL try to recover his loan before too long?