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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Spartim:
” so roughly £10m from a team 3rd in the Bundesliga, that says it all, the problem is we’ve got good players who aren’t developing for whatever reason,”
We bought Jeremie for 300,000 and sold him for millions . That would suggest some development took place.
Some of the people on this site have absolutely lost the plot.
Giving Lennon another chance? Based on what? That garbage he spewed today?
People delighted that Frimpong has been punted?
No wonder Lawwell is laughing his arse off.
JAMES FORREST on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:05 PM
Careful, they will be calling you a hun for this….
Aufwiedersehn JF – a bonus for any squad
FRIMP S storey started he was worth £3.6mil ,now up to £11.5 mil .And whilst i was out PICOLO PETE becomes a great operator and we are lucky to have him at the helm.
I honestly don’t blame Frimpong for wanting to further his career in Germany. The money will be a huge factor but his overall development as a player will come into it as well surely.
JF defo cant cross a ball and is easily pushed off the ball. However, the Gerrys dont often take a player and ruin him. So best of luck wee man.
See you back for the paradise windfall next winter.
JAMES FORREST on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:05 PM
If you refer to myself [which I believe you do]
I simply stated that I have wanted Lennon replaced since Aberdeen away in november?
But explained that when I watch him in pressers my heartstrings wanted to give him more time because I love the man.I am sure I stated that it made no sense.
As for Frimpong?
I am delighted because it is an incredible bit of business.
I am amazed we are getting that kind of money for a flawed player in all departments.
Tis is what the market’s like – this is why we’ve lost the ten – get £5 million players in – they’ll be grand.
LAZYDYNAMITE
I know what you mean re seeing Lenny on TV
I think it’s hard for everyone on here wishing a Celtic manager is sacked.
He could however make it easier for us by simply standing down
31003 on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:17 PM
100% agree
the irony
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55813625
HOT SMOKED on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:03 PM
We bought Jeremie for 300,000 and sold him for millions . That would suggest some development took place.
Just thinking that. From the Man City youth team to Leverkusen and the Bundesliga in 18 months for a decent fee.
Best of luck Jeremie. I have absolutely no idea if you’ll make it but that’s a lot of money. Crossing and decision-making still looked beyond you but you’ll get a higher level of coaching, so who knows.
Form an orderly queue at Lennoxtown. Departures lounge sounds busy. Pleased to hear that no money (beyond a mercenary 6 month loan) given to Neil and his team.
That’s progress at least. Enought to secure 2nd and make a fist of defending the cup?
Mmmmmmm….
HH
Radio Scodland reporting that 100,000 people in the UK have did with (or from) Covid since the outbreak began.
To visualise that number we are told to think of a full Ipox, twice over.
I’m not sure the sentiment that image conjured up for me was the one they were seeking to elicit.
Hi Ghuys
Didnt want Frimpers to go,liked his style.
At least he wont be afraid of being seriously injured every game
Oh my tags
HH
Phil
Early morning, I speculated as to what kind of day this would be.
Would sevco continue to strengthen whilst we stand still?
We didn’t- we’re now entering a period of weakening.
This could be a long 4 months
31003 on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:17 PM
‘He could however make it easier for us’
###
Entitled, much?
a great bit of financial genius , that’s some of the lost European money reimbursed.
I agree that Christie and McGregor have been overplayed but the lack of game time for Ntcham and Soro cannot be explained based on talent
Lennon did have options to rotate in these key areas but he chose not to. He did with the defence and attack continually
Forrest case is unlucky; one of our best senior players who got a bad injury when Johnston was out long terms and Schved never tried
The injuries to Julien have been a bad bounce also and no-one thought that Duffy would be so bad (Big Wavy excepted)
so, i think that the only big issues Lennon had to contend with were losing Julien and Forrest. Everything else could have been managed, including Bolingoli – did he have to be banished?
i’m surprised we have not had a proper debate on here about the defending of set pieces – zonal vs man to man like we did under previous managers . Plenty of guys with coaching badges on here i’d love to hear opinions from. It looks zonal to me but i could be wrong.
The other thing i noticed in recent games is that when the opposition has a chance to put the ball in from their left, Bitton runs away from goal and to almost the by line. It looks deliberate. Ball comes in past him and tap in or missed chance . Duffy has done it before too. This tactic would only block a ball cut across 2 yards out. This is the keeper’s area. The defender should track any attacker making a move there but not run away????? maybe i’m too old
CELTIC40ME on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:20 PM
HOT SMOKED on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:03 PM
Even on inflated internet based transfermarket.com his valuation is only 4M Euros, so its
an astonishing deal.
Life goes on. Whatever you think of this season, of the board, of the manager, it’s an uncomfortable truth that we need to keep selling players at a profit to pay the wages and keep the lights on.
Frimpong did go back a lot this year, but so did Eddie, Elhamed, CalMac, Brooney & Christie, even Laxalt started well & he too has gone back in last few games, I’ll make no comment on Ntcham.
I know you have the standard phrases like Manager has lost the dressing room etc. I have no idea what is happening in Lennoxtown but it has been one strange & depressing Season so far.
31003 on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:17 PM
See if you were found out as not up to your job, would you go to your gaffer and say
“I’m no up to it anymore gaffer, I’m just gonny walk away”. ???
No?
Why should Neil Lennon, then?
In isolation – a big profit on JF is good financial management.
It is, however, utterly garbage team management if he goes with no replacement / a better replacement.
We lose much more potential income every year that we fail to qualify for the top European competitions because of the crap squad management.
Sold Dembele – lost more through non-qualification.
Sold KT – lost more through non-qualification.
The issue is that word – “potential”.
The guaranteed income from a player sale seems to far outweigh any thought of sporting development, squad balance or stability.
We (Club) take punts on players that might generate a profit – if that happens to help the team progress, then that’s something we just have to live with for a couple of years until we can get rid of them.
HH
BGFC
celtic40me
Spot on. They were never going to knock back money like that in the
present climate
CELTIC40ME on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:30 PM
Life goes on. Whatever you think of this season, of the board, of the manager, it’s an uncomfortable truth that we need to keep selling players at a profit to pay the wages and keep the lights on.
================
Yes – true – but only because of poor squad and team management. It has been this way for years. If we continually improve squad and team, we don’t need to sell anyone – income from business (tickets, TV, merchandise) more than covers costs.
The need to sell players to keep the lights on is as clear an indication of abject failure to run the team successfully as can be had.
HH
BGFC
ernie lynch @ 5:23 pm.
“I’m not sure the sentiment that image conjured up for me was the one they were seeking to elicit.”
Although the subject matter is far from being humorous, ernie`s comment really did make me` laugh out loud` :-)))
SQUIRE DANAHER
Not for his sake……for the 000s upon 009s of Celtic fans the world over and for the sake of the club
He is a Celtic man after all……right?
Frimpong first of many
SQUIRE DANAHER on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:31 PM
Multi millionaire, loves Celtic………
Rhebel Rhebel.
“We aim to come out of every window stronger” https://twitter.com/RhebelRhebel/status/1354061441779851265/photo/1
Sad to say, it is all about finishing second now…and no guarantees. How much of a motivation is it for us to finish second compared to Hibs and Aberdeen? They will be up for it. They have an aim. They trying to catch us, we aren’t trying to catch anyone. That’s a worry…
And El Hamed is also going during the window too.
I guess that cements Ralston’s place in the team, unless the stack of Euro11M can play right back – at least it will be bigger than wee Jeremie.
rebuild
/riːˈbɪld/
verb
build (something) again after it has been damaged or destroyed.
“after the earthquake people set about rebuilding their homes”
Similar:
reconstruct
renovate
restore
refashion
remodel
revamp
remake
reassemble
recondition
rehab
Opposite:
demolish
noun
an instance of rebuilding.
“the Trust have recognized the hard work of all who were involved in this daunting rebuild”
Paul Larkin
So another £10m plus rolls into the Desmond/Lawwell cabal. Will this roll into our “added value” ? Is it part of the review “to be concluded in the new year” or are we just taken for mugs again. https://twitter.com/paullarkin74/status/1354065195015036929/photo/1
BIG GEORGES FAN CLUB – HAIL, HAIL, WEE OSCAR on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:35 PM
Buying young players like Frimpong and selling for a big profit isn’t the club reacting to failure, it’s been a central part of our business model for a long time now. It’s not reactive and it does t happen by accident.
Remember this?
https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/celtic-captain-scott-brown-slams-kilmarnocks-alan-power-over-tackle-jeremie-frimpong-1396253
Wonder when he decided to leave?
Leg breaker and not even a yellow.