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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I forgot about Ralston who will still be there…though it doesn’t improve our situation much!
Midfield is just as bad – we’ll likely be left with Soro, Turnbull, Henderson, Robertson and a well past his best Scott Brown! Leaving will be:
Christie – wants to go;
CalMac – last chance to get an EPL gig;
Ntcham – wanted to go for ages;
Rogic – wants to go.
In wide areas we currently have Forrest and Mikey J who will stay, while Dembele, Shved, and Harper will leave and Moi will go back to Southampton!
Up front – Eddy’s gone, leaving Griff (who should be on last chance now), Ajeti and Klimala.
14 players plus 3 average goalkeepers – we’ll be in great shape for the qualifiers…
Lennon said some players will be coming in……cue O’Donnell and Gallagher from Motherwell, out of contract and low wages…
I am sure Lawwell is on the phone to ask junior if he as any other development team RB’s :-0
Problem is, we’ll need cover for whoever we buy.
If we can hold on to Soro and Turnbull we’ll only need to buy another 20 players
the reason most want to move on is down to no player development/improvement or coaching/tactics awareness from current management squad and until the management squad changes this will continue.
bleeding obvious.
Frimpong
That smile. That enthusiasm. That pace.
Seems that the cluggers kicking the 💩out of him on the pitch, and our dysfunctional state off it, have combined to deliver a v predictable outcome.
As Bada said earlier, few professionals wouldn’t be seeking an exit route from a workplace as toxic as Celtic’s present one.
HH jg
Dembele, the most sought after young player in Europe a year ago, will be away in the summer.
Where’s Dudu Dahan when you need him?
Sky Sports German correspondence saying fee of around €10m for JF.
David66
You are right sir, no development only regression.
For my money I would sell frimpong for 3.5 million let alone 13.5 million.
Brilliant bit of news from the club today.
Most positive news in weeks.
Completely flawed player who has been a huge part of our problem.
I am amazed we are getting that kind of money for him.
He is not a right back clearly and without a final ball or a modicum of ability in front of goal not a forward either .[at the moment].
Good luck to him however as clearly he has some ability,mainly pace and he may come good.
NL doesn’t understand why supporters are demanding changes within the football club.
https://twitter.com/90MinuteCynic/status/1354068393972916226
BHOY FROM THE BOYNE
You won’t get Lenny saying he agrees with the support.
He’d be just as well resigning if he did
Alison Conroy saying the fee is £11.5m to Bayer Leverkusen
A lot of profit for a 20 year old with plenty of learning to do.
Nice to sell to a different big league as well.
I’d imagine there’s a big wage rise in it for him.
BHOY FROM THE BOYNE on 26TH JANUARY 2021 2:46 PM
Sounded like a man on the brink of the sack [or certainly should be] apple polishing his employers and telling us how brilliant a job they have done.
They are one big cosy family at parkhead these days.
Maybe we should bring back Lou Macari..lol
By my reckoning, if we’ve sold Frimpers for €10m, we must have a £500,000.00 full back lined up somewhere
I wonder if Man city have any more 330k projects we could get our hands on ?
celtic40me
If that is the case then somebody can see something miles beyond me.
I would have driven him to the Airport for that fee.
Frimpong just reminded me of Didier Agathe, plenty pace but no final ball.
31003- O’Donnell and Gallagher for about 300k will sort it👍
In ither news……………
Rogue warmly embraced by blazers in shock scoddish decision………..
Aye.
MARKIEBHOY on 26TH JANUARY 2021 2:55 PM
I 100% agree mate…incredible business.Never thought it possible to sell him for over 2-3 million…which I would have accepted no problem.
I don’t know if it is, it’s just what’s being reported
Agathe’s cross for Henke in the uefa cup final wasn’t too bad
Paul67 , nice wee safe article today I suppose but whats the point of talking about a player , any player just now. The BIGGER story is behind the scenes at our club . Why not give us your personal opinion on how you rate DD , PL and the Board ? Not a big ask tbh when you cast your mind back to to a few years ago when your forensic analysis regarding the club that died was second to none. Remember them , that club that died but never really did , did they ? The club that cheated the whole of Scottish football but are still allowed to cheat because the guys at the top of our club let them away scot free. You are capable of telling us honestly what you think their succeses and failures have been ………cmon Paul surely you cant keep up this charade much longer ??
!!BADA BING!! on 26TH JANUARY 2021 3:01 PM
31003- O’Donnell and Gallagher for about 300k will sort it👍
If we had decent coaching we could make them better than we already have
Agathe was a great player until he got that bad knee injury – I’ve never seen a player that fast and got us out of jail defensively a number of times. Incredible bargain for only 50k.
31003 on 26TH JANUARY 2021 2:51 PM
By my reckoning, if we’ve sold Frimpers for €10m, we must have a £500,000.00 full back lined up somewhere
Frimpong cost less than that, so it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility
It’s absolutely heartbreaking.
It’s criminal.
We used to be good.
https://twitter.com/90MinuteCynic/status/1354068393972916226?s=08
Lennon doesn’t understand, why the Club is falling to f…, seriously I don’t think he’s well.
MARKIEBHOY on 26TH JANUARY 2021 2:55 PM
“Frimpong just reminded me of Didier Agathe, plenty pace but no final ball.”
That’s one of those statements that just doesn’t hold water when looking at the facts. I could name lots and lots of final balls that ended up goals from Agathe. Tell you what, for an example, just watch the video of Agathe’s contribution to us beating Ajax 4-2 in their own stadium. That’ll change your mind entirely, por cierto.
BSR @ 1:42
Really depressing the way things have unravelled,dont know if its loanee wages causing disruption or tactics and preparation,will we ever know.
Certainly Dubai was an error giving our detractors a free hit,should have been risk assessed prior to finalising.
Add to that a substantial leg up to the opposition and we have the current malaise.
Really disappointing.
Didn’t Agathe provide a cross for one of Henkes goals in the cup final?
DAVID66 on 26TH JANUARY 2021 2:37 PM
Markiebhoy – I don’t think Ralston is Celtic class.
I don’t think Celtic are Celtic class at the moment .
Through a drunken haze I saw Henke hang in the air for 20 minutes waiting for that cross
Agathe? Aye, useless
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mM1wF4c4Er4&feature=emb_logo
Surely…..SURELY the board are working on a new manager as we speak
!!BADA BING!! on 26TH JANUARY 2021 3:08 PM
I’m depressed after listening to that .
Just get the impression something else is happening. His demeanor in the presser was strange.
Ernie
I was at the opposite end of the park when those goals were scored. There was a wee caravan selling beer. I happily got (more) pissed throughout that game. I was told later it was non alcoholic beer they sold. I still managed to get pissed!!!!