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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FANADPATRIOT on 26TH JANUARY 2021 2:11 PM
Not surprised by Frimpong leaving, the treatment he received by journeymen in Scotland, with no protection by officials, would make his mind up to leave.
The standard of football in Scotland is horrendous; any player with ambition would want to move on. Does Health & Safety exist in Scottish Football ?
*thank you thank you thank you, meanwhile the talcum sniffing moreon can do what he likes.
There have been comments on here and other sites about any manager worth his salt will phone BR up prior tae taking the job and then walk away.
What about any young player, including the latest French sensation, calling up their paisano’s and on hearing about the agricultural fitba also walk away. Look at the grief on Eddy’s face after some of the horrendous tackling.
MARTIM1980 @ 4:09 PM.
Priceless.
Genuinely laughing out loud.
Respect.
Case in point is a post earlier today from a prominent contributor.
The post ran to just a few sentences.
Two sentences were pejorative opinions presented as fact.
One was uninformed speculation again presented as fact.
Sign of the times I suppose.
Hail hail
Keep The Faith
I suspect that JF game at Ibrox tipped the transfer , he made Barisic look very ordinary … in a more open game in Germany JF will get more time and space to put on the after burners , and one of the other posters mentioned it earlier batter it across 6 yard line it’s up to the forwards to get there ….
… JF is a big loss as in a reshaped outfit next season he would have been a big plus
its not so much that we have blown the 10 that depresses me, its the manner that we have collapsed since the start of the season, sure I could take sevco stopping us supposing we put up a credible challenge, but we haven’t, we are in a dog fight for 2nd place with the also rans while a fairly average sevco side saunter away at the top of the table with no challenge from us whatsoever.
I certainly don’t feel entitled, just deeply disappointed.
Good News about the Livi Manager, astonished that the SFA or whoever it was made the right decision.
WEEBOBBYCOLLINS
we are trying to get a CL spot, that should be motivating enough but with this group who knows.
Came as a surprise that Frimps was anxious to leave the club for some time as he always seemed to be enjoying his football here. It’s a very good deal and had tobe done when the guy no longer wished to be at Celtic Park. Interesting also that more will follow as we expected. The final breakup of a highly successful team.
It’s been turbulent times at Celtic Park to put it mildly with unrest, protests, nasty stuff and counter arguments among the support and lots of fake news in the media all overwhelming at this stage.
However I will be tuning into Sky Masterson to watch the game tomorrow night supporting the team and the manager in trying to consolidate that second place slot. Regarding the future, Que serra serra.
Maybe wee Frimpers told Lenny he wanted to play In Europe….
Just watched NL press conference.
“our form coming into this game isn’t too shabby ”
OMG
JACKIEMAC on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:41 PM
rebuild
/riːˈbɪld/
verb
build (something) again after it has been damaged or destroyed.
“after the earthquake people set about rebuilding their homes”
Similar:
reconstruct
————-
I bought a cheap thesaurus in the Barras once. It was rubbish and it was also, ehm, rubbish
CELTIC40ME on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:42 PM
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.
===================
I realise it has been part of the model for a long time – that’s why I was saying that – in isolation – it is good business.
However, if it is not wedded to an approach with a clear focus on the player-pipeline (i.e., only sell one if we have another of similar standard already coming through the development squad, or in the door and embedded in the squad), then it is a model that leaves the squad unbalanced, unsettled and unstructured.
That is what has led to poor European performances and an annual rush to build a team either just before the most important games (or usually, to construct a lesser team once we have failed to qualify).
I’m not saying we should be the only club that doesn’t have player sales as part of our strategy, but it needs to be supported by other strategic and tactical approaches.
HH
BGFC
ST TAMS on 26TH JANUARY 2021 5:53 PM
Deluded or what?
We used to mock guys like Pedro and Warburton for the pish they spouted….
Rock Tree Bhoy at 5:48
Agree, wholeheartedly, with your first 2 paragraphs.
(No opinion on 3rd)
Well said
SLABHOY on 26TH JANUARY 2021 8:33 AM
I’m away to watch the 4-2 game. I’ve found it on YouTube. I was in the US at the time and would have got the result 2-3 days later in a UK paper (at over £1/minute, nobody was making those phone calls!) RIP big Shuggie
*Big Shuggie joined us the summer I came here however when I heard about his demise that game came tae mind but not about his performance or contribution tae it.
Over here on a Sunday night we would be able to buy the Sunday Mail, Post and Weekly News, 2 papers that were contrary tae our beliefs as they were non-union and had I believe the same hiring policies as the bigots’ fae G51 2XD.
The Sundays were the ones you could buy in a pub late on Saturday night but any port in a storm for us expats.
One of the Toronto papers was also an avenue for us for the results on the day of a game; we all had the sports department’s phone number ingrained in our minds.
The long weekends always proved difficult due tae delivery fae the airport and it was usually the Tuesday before we could acquire our fix.
Victoria Day, a Monday, aka the May two four weekend as it sometimes fell on that date, we had been out for a meal with an older acquaintance who lived here at the time, the convenience stores were open so I chanced they might be in.
To my delight they were and as I walked back I glanced at the back page of the Post, wee article saying that big Shuggie would be joining up with his national side after tomorrows OF game.
Tomorrow meant the day; I threw the oul yin the papers and headed tae his hoose tae drop him off. The weans ran in for the lavvie and I followed, straight down tae his basement and phoned the Globe and Mail.
Sports Department please, a lassie comes on and I ask her if she had any Scottish soccer scores, quick as a flash she says Celtic won it 4 to 2.
As I’m bounding up the stairs I realise we had won the league. The oul yin who was possibly the best Celtic supporter I knew was delirious.
On the way home it dawned on me my da hudnae called me, no like him, so the next afternoon when I got home fae work I called him, cheaper rates after 6:00 pm.
He was enthused about the score so I asked him why he didnae call me, his response was there was a strike so nae highlights that night and also he didnae think we would win so went tae bed early, it was only when he got up the next morning and tuned the wireless on that he found out we were Champions.
FRANKTERRY on 26TH JANUARY 2021 3:07 PM
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
—–
Loved Agathe. What a game he had against Juventus. A player who could peak to a very high level, though not consistently enough for him to move to a better team in a better league.
Ziggydoc1
That was really the point I was clumsily trying to make.
Most players who show up well consistantly at Celtic
will draw the attention of other clubs and often a move to a higher level.
Agathe never quite got there.
Moussa Dembele, Armstrong, Tierney and Boyatta all wanted away under BR.
People seem to forget that.
Young Frimps came to Celtic as a stepping stone and has achieved his ambition in relatively quick time by moving to a big club in the Bundesliga next door to the Dutchman’s home. Nothing new about that. Good for him and very good for Celtic, take the money and run.
Markiebhoy………….. if memory serves me correctly, did some club not offer 12 million for Agathe when he was playing brilliantly in Europe.
Agathe was amazing in Europe..his pace shocked the opposition..god knows how many times he chased a ball everyone tbought was going out and crowd would mental when he caught it..I used to shout “go on Didier” in a mad French accent (no even sure he spoke french) which made ma mate cringe..only done it to noise him up obv
Aye they where the days..hmm
Are there any players at the club who are actually happy and proud to play for Celtic, and not angling for a move?
I demand to know their names.
Its only good for Celtic if we replace him – even using some of the money coupled with good scouting to replace him with someone who improves that position immediately.
If we only sell then that weaken a position in the team. Weakening any position increases our chances of failure in European qualification – any short-term profit is very quickly negated. A £10M player profit versus a £30M qualification profit – the certainty of one places the chance of the other at a higher level of risk.
It is a mistake we have made year on year.
As I say – in isolation this is a good move. But the team doesn’t operate in isolation.
HH
BGFC
Couple of things… We believe a manager who was so out of his depth (Delia) and needed to impress just to bad mouth a celtic legend is beyond ridiculous…… Another thing Delia was a PL project that DD went along with for so long………. I attended a funeral with JC… I sat and spoke to him and his brother for well over two hours at the afters…….. There were no fitness issues…. Two or three players came back overweight… No surprise who they were!!!…. Delia didn’t want to play Tierney…. JC was begging him… He could see what he was doing in training and how super fit he was for his age….. The insight I got in those two hours was brilliant…. Let’s just say he ain’t a fan of CC….. Getting back to lennon…. How the feck has he ever won any games never mind trophys??!!!!!
Hankray
Maybe they did or was it just media p*sh.
Can’t see us not accepting an offer like that at that time.
I think he was once linked with Juventus but think about
the p*sh surrounding Moreorless – no real offers just
people flying kites.
Liked your previous comment regarding Frimpong
think all the truth is there.
Frimpong may not have been actively looking to leave but perhaps when told of interest from Leverkusen decided it was the right move? So it may be he isn’t/wasn’t unhappy but the opportunity is just too good to pass up?
Frank Terry………Agree Agathe was a great player and with Alan Thompson on the other wing we had great physical power in those positions.
Markiebhoy……….. could have been scuppered due to his bad knee injury.
who is CC ?
good insights in that post, ta for sharing
CC?
KC?
https://mobile.twitter.com/huddlebreakdown/status/1354088228555526148
Another good listen on Huddle Breakdown.
Hankray
Yeah you are probably right.
I would’t want anyone to think I didn’t like or rate Agathe.
I just thought if he had a better final ball he would have been a 20 million
pound player.
Why? When there are 2 games on tv do I always seem to pick the wrong one to watch?
Funny how 10 years at Man City couldn’t coach Frimpong but lennon (the absolute worst coach of all time) should have been able to do it in 18 months!!!… Tho he’s obviously improved in 18 monthe from a 500k to a 10 million player!!!!…. How the feck did useless lennon manage that… Funny old game….. Philip Cocu still available..
Spidey 101… Nail on head……. But don’t let that idea grow… Far better to say…….. Lennon the worst ever… Is making young players leave
Wilfried Zaha has got a wee man bun at each corner of his heid.
The man buns are affecting his play
James Forrest
No surprise to me that NL used the term, watch when he is back in the media it will be constant, he is very much into that mindset always has been.
Is that the bonus secured ?
So young Frimpong wants out, who could blame him, he gets scythed down game after game without any protection whatsoever, it wouldn’t be so bad if the club spoke out against it, but as ever not a word.
KT is a perfect example, the hammer throwers virtually destroyed his career, after a bit of recuperation down south he is blowing them away cos he is protected.
The Canman is 100% on the button with the health and safety thing, the parasites who are destroying our club from the inside are 100% to blame for this, FFS Mr Stein said it back in the day, yet all these years on our suits have said eff all, ask yourself why, they only care about the money and eff everything else.