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Bologna and player development

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By on CQN BLOG & Comments

Bologna are fifth in Serie A after 19 games.  If they finish higher than seventh, this will be their best season since 1970-71.  18 months ago, they signed Lewis Ferguson (son of Derek) from Aberdeen for €2m.  The 24-year-old is now a star in Italy, attracting a Transfermarkt value of €18m.  Their squad is dominated by players in their early and mid-20s, who in Scotland would be called ‘projects’ but at Bologna it’s just regarded as a normal way to build a club.

Now they want to sign 18-year-old Celtic winger, Rocco Vata (son of Rudi).  Rocco is out of contract in the summer, so is able to sign a pre-contract and has had only a handful of substitute opportunities since making his Celtic debut a year ago.

Two Celtic managers have worked with Rocco and despite a period of injury crisis this season, he has not been given a platform.  Do Bologna see something we don’t?  It’s possible, but that question misses the point.  Rocco is 18, it’s what happens next that is more important than whatever innate talent he has.

We use the word ‘potential’ to describe young players all the time, without attributing the developmental responsibility the club has in delivering that potential.  Great young players fail to make it for various reasons, not least of all a lack of opportunity to work in a conducive environment.  Look at Liam Scales, a different injury crisis rescued him from forever being associated with the word “Darvel”.

Will Rocco get first team exposure and flourish like Lewis Ferguson, or will he spend the next three years learning a language while playing in empty stadiums with the occasional loan period?  The breakthrough odds on a teenager making it in the game are ridiculously low, but at Bologna he would be moving to a club that understands how their role in development better than most.

Celtic largely target players a few years older than Rocco, the early 20s are our hot spot (the stage Lewis Ferguson was when he left Aberdeen).  Most, like Nawrocki, Lagerbielke, Tilio, Palma, Yang and Holm are usually first team players in comparable leagues.  This is where we need to operate, there is no other viable development play for the club.

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  2. Tontine Tim on

    CHAIRBHOY on 10TH JANUARY 2024 4:15 PM

     

     

    The Club that lead the way almost sixty years ago by producing the quality street gang now usurped by Bologna.

     

     

    *naw the club that led the way was on its way tae another unprecedented NIAR in the reserve league before Harold Steptoe and his son nae surname cancelled that league only to be joined by the rest of the clubs as they no longer saw it financially viable.

     

     

    murray and murray alone destroyed Scottish fitba and nae journalist will touch that as if they do so then it will reveal that their own lyin thieven niar is tainted ok.

  3. mmccartney on

    Gregg Taylor is like lots of wing backs, very good and willing going forward, not great at defending. I do think that for some reason he is the first to take criticism when the super critics in the Celtic support are analysing games. In my opinion he had a very good game against the Ibrox mob, although he did get caught out positionally a couple of times by the counter attack, if you analyse most games this does happen to even the best of wing backs at times. AJ at right back is a player I like but this season hasn’t played to the same standard as last season, but he doesn’t seem to get the same criticism as GT.

     

    As for the LB position and lack of cover , with the number of CB’s now available, maybe we could look to Liam Scales as cover for the LB position in an emergency.

     

    Obviously Stevie Clarke see’s GT as the 3rd best Scottish LB and being 3rd best behind Robertson and Tierney isn’t too bad.

     

    As a realist, I’m not expecting any eye catching signings in January, a couple of loan signings is what I expect.

     

    Would be very happy to be proved wrong by the Celtic hierarchy.

  4. scullybhoy on

    David Marshall

     

     

    Anthony Ralston

     

    John Kennedy

     

    Charlie Mulgrew

     

    Kieran Tierney

     

     

    Callum McGregor

     

    Liam Miller

     

    Shaun Maloney

     

     

    James Forrest

     

    Simon Donnelly

     

    Aiden McGeady

     

     

    Subs: Mickey Johnston, Ross Wallace, Mark Burchill, Stephen Welsh, Ben Doak

     

     

    (James McCarthy, Andy Robertson, Shay Given?)

     

     

    Did I miss anyone?

  5. jackiemac on

    paul67 – if we recruit at that age group and price range, are we excluded from making [progress in the champion’s league?

  7. celtic40me on

    SCULLYBHOY

     

     

    O’Dea and McManus. 180 minutes without conceding against Milan in the CL last 16

  9. shaunamura on

    BRB

     

    your sojourn is proving very educational have to google everyday to see where you are refuelling

     

    keep enjoying life on the ocean waves

  12. Aipple on

    CELTIC40ME re: Ange

     

     

    I hear you good sir and I was just being silly with my comment. I work with a few US chaps that support Spurs, they love the guy.

  15. Darwin on

    In fifty years time when all the gripers & groaners, all the barrack-room lawyers, the 267 Che Guevara wannabees and the travelling troupe of IRA songsters are gone; lovers of our club will look back at the first quarter of the twenty-first century and marvel at the continuous level of success enjoyed by the great Glasgow Celtic during that period, and they will rightly ask “who were the amazing people running our club at that time?”.

     

     

    They will understand why fighting petty battles with our greatest rivals, and shooting from the hip at every decision coming out of the football authorities, was not on the agenda of a group of people whose only motivation was always “what is best for Celtic”

     

     

    Today in our midst “they are none so blind as they that won’t see.

  16. Celtic Mac on

    As some on here have pointed out Private Eye was pretty much a solo voice on the Horizon – Post Office scandal of recent decades, and more recently ITV via its’ dramatisation of the impact the miscarriages of justice had on some of the families. The BBC made efforts too, a Radio 4 series, and also a Panarama documentary first shown back in April 2022. That is being reshown tonight at 10.40pm and well worth a rewatch.

  18. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    DESSYBHOY @ 3:42 PM

     

     

    We also paid 11m tax on profits, all of the Ange compensation.

     

     

    ——

     

     

    Really?

  20. ziggydoc1 on

    !!BADA BING!! on 10TH JANUARY 2024 5:28 PM

     

    Kuhn in before Friday is the rumour

     

    ____

     

    Hope your source isn’t the same one who gave you mckenna 😉

  21. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Two weeks ago this “20-year” injustice didn’t exist in the eyes of the government.

     

     

    Now is unprecedented.

     

     

    Delighted at the (proposed) solution.

     

     

    What does it say about the state of our politics though that it ignores something until a TV programme is made?

     

     

    BTW – no brainer for the Tories.

     

     

    They’ll get the credit.

     

     

    If they win five more years, they’ll happily slice elsewhere to pay for it.

     

     

    If they lose, as is likely, the bill is Labour’s problem.

  22. Celtic Mac on

    I see Ange has signed Timo Werner, 27 going on 28, on loan to the end of the season at Spurs. Could sign him for £15 mill if he does well as I believe he will. Maybe didn’t shine at Chelsea but did well and scored goals at Stuttgart and RB Lepzig and is a good bet to start against Scotland in the Euros. Thing is Werner also played twice against us in the CL group stages last season and he scored at Celtic Park in a 2-0 win for RB. Point being Ange has seen him up close and thinks he can do a job for Spurs, and if he is right will see Spurs play in the revamped CL next season.

  23. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Finally some data driven reporting my BBC.

     

    (Simon Jack)

     

     

    Over the last decade, Fujitsu have won 191 UK Government contracts worth £6.5 billion.

     

     

    The “public sector bad, private sector good” mantra has been parroted by Friedman junkies and various others all my life …

     

     

    …. and swallowed conclusively by the electorate ….

     

     

    …. without ever stopping to think where huge volumes of private company’s revenues come from.

     

     

    🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

  24. Taurangabhoy on

    I think Lawwell just came back to be the escaped goat. Takes the pressure off wee Greg. What happened to the Lisbon Money.

  26. Back to Basics - Glass Half Full on

    Dessybhoy – cheers.

     

     

    Am glad we’re PROFITABLE and that we pay Corporation TAX in accordance with the LAW.

     

     

    Sevco, of course, never worry themselves about any of the capitalised words above.

  27. dessybhoy on

    Fair enough but 11m, when we have needs for the first team squad, we seemed to have made too much profit in that trading year, surely the tax liabilty could have been reduced by shrewd use of our money.

  33. Burnley78 on

    Wow

     

     

    Some folk really are giving our non exec chairman a heck of a lot of rent free head space.

     

     

    Feared by our biggest rivals who think he alone has dominated Scottish football manipulation everything to Celtic’s ends this past 20 years.

     

     

    Disliked or worse by some bitter or resentful or entitled Celtic customer folks who somehow believe they deserve better ( where have we heard that before ) but can’t quite explain what ‘better’ looks like as that is apparently not their job.

  35. celtic40me on

    DESSYBHOY on 10TH JANUARY 2024 6:41 PM

     

     

    The problem with spending to reduce profit in one year is how you spend it.

     

     

    To reduce our profit by 40m in one year means increasing your costs in that year by 40m

     

     

    Because of the way transfer fees are accounted for you’d need to spend £160m last year on transfers which would be spread over the following 4 years. If you would otherwise have broken even in the following three years you’d be looking at a loss of 40m in each year.

     

     

    If you were to increase your wage bill by 40m you’d face the same problem. Nobody signs a one year contract, you’d be commiting to those costs for four years not just one so you’d faced the same problem – have a bad year or two and you’re committed to still paying those wages.

     

     

    Better to bank the profit and use it in future instead of working to spend more to reduce your tax liability which you can’t calculate precisely until after the year end. Especially when you have something like Jota’s sale appearing in the accounts on the last day of the year

  37. Turkeybhoy on

    Transfers completed as of NOW

     

     

    Spurs. Werner on loan. In

     

     

    Huns. Silva on loan. In

     

    Huns. Lammers on loan out

     

     

    That’s the lot.Who was it that was on about this being a difficult window to get quality in.Decent players,waiting.

     

     

    Let me think,Oh that’s right,ME.Wit am a like?.

     

    Who was it wailing we have signed no one yet?Yep,lunkheads on here.We could have had Lammers,!!!!!!!!!

  38. Turkeybhoy on

    Oh,and the 3 loaned strikers between them have scored less goals than a one legged Goalkeeper.

     

    Pyoor quality man.

  40. celtic40me on

    DESSYBHOY

     

     

    The commitment to spend would have had to come at the start of last season for it to have had an effect on the profit

     

     

    So we’d have had to foreseen the 40m profit before we made it

     

     

    Jotas transfer and Ange’s compensation came in the last month of the year, by which time we couldn’t have spent the 20m even if we’d have tried

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