Barkas and the Stevie Woods Academy

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Vasilis Barkas does not enjoy too much appreciation among the Celtic support. It is not that he makes mistakes, more that he has failed to take the numerous opportunities presented by a largely lax defence to convince us he has the talent to become a mainstay in the team for years to come. What’s for sure is that he cannot perform the miracles we were treated to last year by Fraser Forster.

At 26-years-old, Vasilis should be approaching his prime years, but instead of building on a solid reputation gained at AEK Athens, he has seen Scott Bain and Conor Hazard chosen ahead of him this season.

There will be many changes this summer and if the manager (?) wants to move Barkas on he will likely find a taker, but there are reasons I would persevere with him for the rest of the season. First of those is the development we saw in Fraser Forster under goalkeeping coach, Stevie Woods.

When Fraser first arrived at Celtic on loan a decade ago the jury was out on him, some of the support preferred Lukas Zaluska, whom he shared the gloves with for a period. Fraser was 18 months into his load period when a penalty save against Hearts brought wider recognition of his improvement over that period, however, he continued to improve well into his third season at Celtic. There are few keepers Stevie has not improved in his years at Celtic, given time, Barkas will also benefit, although let’s hope he does not have too many opportunities to demonstrate that against Hamilton tomorrow.

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584 Comments

  1. I am delighted with the deal to sell young Frimpong .

     

     

    He was chirpy young lad .

     

    Had good pace , was exciting to watch on the ball .

     

    We he put his mind to it he could go past a man .

     

    He was useless in the air .

     

    Crumbled almost every time he was tackled.

     

    Couldn’t pick out a final pass.

     

    Was like a scared rabbit in headlights when the goals opened up for him .

     

    Lacked composure and provided very few assists despite getting into loads of good positions.

     

    He frustrated me more than any other player at the club.

     

    He was ineffective.

     

     

    Good luck in Germany .

     

     

    TT

  2. PHILBHOY

     

     

    I’m with you.

     

     

    Unfortunately my frequent crusades have been met with accusations of

     

     

    (a) paranoia

     

     

    (b) deflection from poor results/performances

     

     

    (c) bigotry on my part

     

     

    (d) “OldFirmism” – the wee teams get nothing against the big teams ….now you know how we feel.

     

     

    (e) “Westcoastism” – the teams from the East get nothing against the Weegies esp in Weegiedom….now you know how we feel

     

     

    (f) Europeanism – your lot are crap in Europe despite ‘obviously neutral’ referees. Remember when the refs went on strike and yous got a guy fae Luxemburgh and ye coudny even beat Inverness at home ?

     

     

    (g) wealth – you’ve plenty money to buy players to render referees irrelevant.

     

     

     

    I could go on.

     

     

     

     

    WhistleGub

  3. Latest rumour Preston manager Alex Neil supposedly been approached to manage Celtic next season. James McCarthy who he had at Hamilton is joining along with the PNE centre half Ben Davies and midfielder Pearson on pre contacts

  4. Wonder if we have a sell on clause for Armstrong.

     

    He’ll get a move to a bigger club on this form

  5. Blantyretim.

     

     

    KT

     

    Paul McStay

     

    Charlie Nic

     

     

    Could all lift their heads and pick out an opponent at a younger age .

     

     

    He was not going to get any taller or faster .

     

    Or have better vision .

     

     

    I feel the same way about Mikey Johnstone.

     

     

    TT

  6. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse – Vale lose again. We’d sack the manager if we hadn’t already done so 😨

  7. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    TT

     

    I think it was a good bit of business but a young player in a team lacking isn’t going to shine

     

     

    These guys need experienced ones around them to help them through bad periods

     

     

    McStay had great midfielders around him when he broke into the team and Nicholas had McGarvey and Mccluskey

     

     

    Frimpon had a good first season and like the rest his form dipped this season

  8. Go tell the Spartim on

    Alex Neil doesn’t fit P67 profile, he’s not under the radar he had his shot and was found out. Whilst I thought I’d take anyone new at this stage, evidently not

  9. blantyretim is praying for the Knox family on

    TT

     

    Feelings mutual , 😂

     

     

    We can disagree without falling out

  10. Paul The Spark on

    Does anyone know anything about Ben Davies who we are in for? Is he any good or will he be replacing another scapegoat?

  11. jeez_I_thought_blinker_was_pants on

    RIP Dr Jo, right manager at the wrong time time for Celtic. Had a good eye for a player.

     

     

    Got the p*sh ripped out of him by the Scottish press, Keevins in particular.

  12. Arsno player imitating Michael Jackson by wearing one white glove and dancing about the wing.

     

    He’s Bad