Every year we hear that January is a difficult time to do transfer business. Clubs are reluctant to allow top performers to leave midseason, but we’ve had some creative January activity over the years. Objectives for this month are clear.
We need to better prepare for our Summer Cup Finals. Trying to build a defence, or strike force, while simultaneously qualify for the Champions League is, unsurprisingly, tricky. Summer transfer windows are really two periods, the last days of the month, after European qualification has been taken care of, and earlier in the window, when limited volumes of business will take place.
We’ve done some great business early in summer months, most notably Virgil van Dijk, but instances like this are rare.
The most interesting aspect of this window will be how Ronny Deila is backed. He’s 18 months in the job now, long enough to come to an assessment of the wider scouting infrastructure he inherited. We’ve been underperforming on recruitment since January 2012. Ronny needs to buck this trend, and Celtic need to give him the necessary lateral.
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Had the misfortune to watch the Celtic game again from Saturday.
Why are the very wealthy custodians of our club publicly silent on the scandalous refereeing decisions suffered by the Celtic support, week upon week?
To blatantly deny penalty kicks ( watch the replays not analysed by BBC ) the game in Scotland is a mere charade.
A charade fewer and fewer are buying into at the very least our club should be publicly declaring it is not acceptable. They aren’t doing so and haven’t done so previously.
The game is over in Scotland but these types of decisions are driving Celtic fans away.
Why does our club accept it?
4-1 Wardrop
NatKnow on 4th January 2016 2:43 pm
Sorry for late reply – work gets in the way
The answer is I don’t – but even if Im wrong and RD does have a greater say (and Park a lesser say) the outcome is the same – we do not buy well
I haven’t done the numbers – but if you add up the last 3 years money spent on players then add their wages I think it says we are not good buyers
If it’s is PL and Park or PL and RD something is not right
67ECW
HT where can I find a link to the team? CFC site?
What team Hebcelt?
Happy New Year
God Bless everyone here
First touch footballers – there’s many a game been influenced by a player’s first first touch – sets confidence for the game when good – sets others running for the hills when bad.
Remember Paul did an article on Aiden and how a good game usually followed a good first first touch…
U
HAMILTONTIM on 4TH JANUARY 2016 4:21 PM
4-1 Wardrop
——————————————
Is the game on Celtic TV ?
Development Squad
Ziggy
Don’t know mate. I’m following it on Twitter.
Hebcelt
https://twitter.com/celticfc/status/684011573552218113
HAMILTONTIM on 4TH JANUARY 2016 4:26 PM
Ziggy
Don’t know mate. I’m following it on Twitter.
– ———————————–
OK. Thanks.
HT
The article I referred to:-
James Kelly
HT OK me too thanks for the updates
Hoops:Bailly,Wardrop,O’Connell,Blackett,McIlduff,Thomson,Hill,Allan,Mackay-Steven,Donnelly, Nesbitt
MiT,
Personally, at the game, I was sure the first penalty was definitely one; the second probably not. Bitton probably should have been sent off for the foul just before his sending off. I have no problem with that. What sticks in my craw is that PT were allowed to do exactly the same thing and the MIB took no action. As you are only too well aware, that is nothing unusual. The Club making a formal complaint to the SFA won’t make any difference, imo, as every other team benefits. The SMSM won’t make an issue of it, except to say that we’re paranoid; Scotland and their refs are not to be criticised, unless, like Collum, you give a penalty against the deid team (even though, in that case, he evened things up by giving them a penalty which never was).
Auldheid on 4th January 2016 2:57 pm
I agree that a CBM is not on the agenda – but I do not understand the game plan of our Manager
Faster fitter etc was the message – so we buy Ciftic Cole Stimovic (spelling)
The players don’t match the managers thinking – so I assume RD has a minimal input into who we buy ???
As was pointed out to me before “You dont know that” correct but I have an opinion
For clarity Ive had enough of RD since Malmo (probably before – but gave him the much sought after “time”) I want a change as I see no progress and no improvement in players ability
67ECW
Sftb
Thanks I’ll have a read once y reporting job is done.
Why has James Kelly MSP not put forward a Members Bill bill since 2012? Election year maybe? This bill needed to be repealed soon after it became law. Is there a period of time before you can put forward a member’s bill to a new law? por cierto
Bourne
I would hope that we’re making noises behind the scenes.
Jimtim.-I was at Preston v Blackburn a couple of weeks ago.Grant Hanley of Blackburn was MOTM,attacked every ball and threw his body in the way of everything. Before guys come on and say Grant Hanley ffs,he is playing at a better level than we are He was like a young Mick McCarthy,an old fashioned defender HH
Quonno,
I’ve said more than once on here that that corner kick from Charlie Gallagher leading to Big Billy heading it into the net is the most important goal Celtic have scored in my lifetime. It changed everything and for the good. It’s etched on my heart, mind and soul. I’ll never forget how I felt when it hit the back of the net. Absolute pure unadulterated joy.
Top drawer finish from Wardrop.
Bsr
Very funny!
I’ve not read back, so apologies if already posted…johnjames…
“The business equation for the biggest club in Scotland will be how many supporters will Celtic lose by silence and how many will come back because that silence allows a return to games against the old enemy?
It’s a calculation of will the number of decent supporters Celtic have, for whom ethics are more important than the hate fest our game seems to think it depends on, be greater or smaller than those who don’t care about ethics, morals or being cheated?
So the idea that Celtic will stay silent knowing what they know and think to be true, if and when supported by the courts, is simply fanciful and built on a perception of the Celtic Board as men of no morals or ethics at all.”
The foreword is an extract from a comment by Auldheid. He is highly respected in the Celtic-facing internet sites. His comments are published on a number of sites, including Kerrydale Street which was a shortlisted finalist in the annual football blog awards. His comments are also published on The Scottish Football Monitor. To those who would argue that he should not be allowed to comment on what was designed to be a forum for informed Rangers supporters, I would counter that informed and constructive comment should be sought from a number of sources. There is too much spin by Je Suis Graham (peace be upon him) and Mangetout Traynor in other Rangers-facing sites. To host comments of this type should suggest that this fledgling site is respected by others. Articles published on this site have more readers than is the case at The National.
I’m not going to write a history of the Old Firm. Others have done that. I prefer to think of them as The Glasgow Duopoly. Aberdeen temporarily wrested the title from their grasp over 30 years ago. However during the period of 1999-2011, 20 titles were won by Rangers with players who were ‘imperfectly’ registered.
There are those who believe that these titles should be excised from the record books. I can understand their case. Sandy Bryson’s fudge is as crooked as the tax evasion/avoidance schemes themselves. The LNS commission was a farce and should have no merit going forward. The recommendations of this commission are not legally binding. No Rangers administration has either participated in or accepted the findings of this commission.
I posit that the Old Firm soubriquet is more important to Rangers fans at this present time than it is to those of CFC. To be part of The Old Firm represents continuity. The intelligent fans who read this site know that Rangers are being liquidated. When this process has been completed the Rangers that I supported as a boy will no longer exist. A new club was formed from the ashes of the old. A phoenix club. However Rangers fans maintain their affection for the old club, as they should. We then arrive at the 54 v 44 ‘supremacy’ situation. Rangers fans attest that their history is superior to that of CFC. The CFC fans claim that the new club has no right to cite the history of the old club. This argument was set to run indefinitely. It’s an important argument for Rangers fans. The phoenix club has won nothing. You will forgive me if I don’t accept the anticipated victory against a part-time team in Petrofac Cup Final as a title to cherish.
If CFC chose to challenge the legitimacy of the twenty titles, seven league titles would be lost. They would not be reassigned. Forty-seven v Forty Four does not have the dominance necessary to give Rangers fans a feelgood factor. I realize that this is of little relevance to other fans, but as a club that was on the brink of extinction we cling onto the titles won by the old club as if our life depended on it.
I’m not going to defend tax avoidance/evasion. I hope everyone who participated in these fraudulent schemes is presented by crippling back taxes, back taxes that will not be met, despite their side letters, by RFC 2012 in liquidation.
The problem here is the negligence and the abrogation of responsibility by Scottish football governance during that period. The board of Rangers cheated as they knew it would be easy to hoodwink the authorities. Had it not been for a London City police raid in 2007, the side letters would have remained a closely guarded secret. The LNS commission was set up to save the careers of Doncaster, Regan and Two Hats Topping. It was set up to exonerate Campbell Ogilvie and Sandy Bryson from any blame where both were unequivocally culpable.
Is it in the best interests of Celtic’s Peter Lawell and Eric Riley to go after Doncaster and Regan? Going after Rangers in isolation is not on the table. To go after the old club’s history is to pit yourselves against powerful enemies, the least of which is career criminal Dave King who is known to have consorted with underworld figures. Does anyone think that a Pyrrhic victory is a worthwhile pursuit by the Celtic board?
Commercial expediency will always hold sway in Scottish professional football. CFC PLC is a business which can only sell just over 50% of its available season tickets. A competitive Rangers will add a minimum of 5,000 to the current 38,000 and yield greater pay at the gate income. Peter Lawwell has estimated that the opportunity cost of Rangers absence is £10m per annum.
To those who argue that title stripping has no commercial significance to the current club, they should revisit this point. Do you think the 33,000 who bought ST cards at Ibrox are there solely to watch Mark Warburton’s team? The attend because as far as they are concerned they are watching a Rangers team in its spiritual home. If you strip them of the titles, you strip them, as Ally McCoist aptly put it, of their dignity. Many mighty walk away from the game forever.
Did the Rangers board cheat? Yes they did. Let’s pursue the culprits. Should we strip titles from a club being liquidated? What’s the point of it? A level playing field is a utopia that has never existed in Scottish football.
2nd choice keeper Bailly taken off injured today , Sunday just got a bit more scarier
HT
Sick of it, – utterly blatant in front of a home crowd, the arrogance to know that he can blank a Celtic penalty, not once, but twice. All without TV analysis let alone reprimand?
Bucking underperforming?
Buck that for a caper.
Paul67
I agree the January window is a frought affair for a buying club like Celtic.
We only buy players ( KIeran Tierney ) aside from Saturday, it’s the way we run the club, and Lennoxtown is a training ground for expensively assembled pro’s.
The problem is at the moment , we decided some time ago to try and stay just the one step ahead of Aberdeen and the new Rangers.
Why spend millions and go into debt when you’re playing ‘pub teams’ © CQN posters
The assembled squad may or may not be good enough,to win the league I’d rather we didn’t waste any money on more January non entities.
Revue the club business plan from top to bottom including how supporters are more fairly treated.
Bada
Definitely injured and not just with Sunday in mind?
Mike in Toronto
I hope you and others will indulge me in this true story up to the final embellishment which comes into the category of “I’d love to I have said it at the time”. If the tale has a title it would be.
You played on What?
I moved to London in 1965 aged 19 having played on cobbled and tarmacadamed Calton streets, assorted school yards, and black ash pitches at Glasgow Green with more clinker than ash for a number of years.
The odd trip every 8 weeks, weather permitting, to Loretto to play on grass was an absolute highlight of my formative footballing years.
The pitches at the “Green” apart from not living up to their description being black ash were small and tight. A yard or less was the distance from touchline to penalty box and a fat boy stood a better chance of winning a penalty than I did if waiting to receive a shy with his back to goal.
That tightness conditioned you to associate receiving the ball with a clatter in the back so much so that the act of receiving, whirling and jumping out of the way, whilst still keeping control of the ball, became an art form based on the survival instinct.
It was with such conditioning I ventured south.
After arrival in the old Post Office Savings Bank I was approached by a Scot called Jock (no surprise or imagination there) who asked if I played football. Is the Pope a Catholic was my thought but my reply was just “Sure” ( You never knew if a Jock was a Tim or a Bluenose on first meeting, so best play safe).
I was told game was on the Saturday at Gunnersby public park. Directions were go to Acton Town tube station take a left and a left and straight on.
I did and approached the green swathe at Gunnersby perplexed. Where were the ash pitches?
I enter the dressing room and grunt “Hello” and get stripped. I ask where our pitch is to be told around the side of the changing rooms.
That answers my unasked question – the ash pitches are around the back, so off I trot happy as an ash bhoy. But but no ash pitches in sight!!
So back I go to the dressing rooms. (At this point I should have plucked a long blade of grass to chew and maybe a straw hat as I enter dressing room and ask.
“Where is the pitch again?”
“Around the back” I’m told
“But there’s no black ash pitches there, that’s what I play on.”
At this point all dressing room movement and banter stops as 11 pair of eyes fix on me (ten men plus manager – I don’t think we had subs in those days) and I hear
“You played on WHAT?”
So I explain the concept of black ash pitches etc but am assured that in London parks the surface is grass.
It gets better.
Remember the tight pitches in The Green? Well not in Gunnersby.
I receive the ball chest high (it was a size 5 orange ball as I remember) and whirl round before I’m clattered – only to find my marker 2 yards away.
At this point the embellishment comes in . I turn to the manager on the touchline and shout.
“You’re gonnae need another baw”
From that moment on the nature of that game changed for me from how many goals we scored to how many men I could beat.
I think I managed 7 on one mazy, but by then there may indeed have been two balls on the park.
Bada and Hamilton Tim. Well it could be a chance for young Fasan on Sunday. HH
apparently, Zizou is the new manager at Real Madrid.
HT-got a text saying Baily taken off injured today,Fasan next in line I think.
We’re no having much luck with injuries this season:((
Get Efe In the goals..
Por Cierto
James Kelly was on the original justice committee, chaired by Christine Graham, that heard all the evidence that led to the formation of the OBaF legislation. In common with all non-SNP MSP’s on the committee he opposed the legislation.
In common with all non-SNP MSP’s he voted against its renewal when it came up for review.
On each occasion he, and they, were outvoted by every SNP MSP voting as party fodder. Not one SNP MSP voiced concern or dissent far less voted against.
Now, you can be cynical all you like about the motives and the timing because I am gonna be cynical too:- There is absolutely no chance at all of his effort to introduce and debate a Members Bill having a positive effect. The SNP MSPs have shown on each previous occasion when they could have rowed back from their disastrous legislation that they will all be loyal party apparatchiks and never admit they made a mistake.
The only way the OBaF Act goes is if a) The SNP lose their majority- (unlikely) , or b) They delete the legislation themselves, claiming it did its job, and they can let it go now.
Meanwhile, we will prefer to blame a Labour MSP for not being able to persuade an overwhelming number of SNP MSPs voting out of party loyalty rather than evaluating the evidence. And they will still get the backing of a majority of Celtic fans even as they shaft us.
FT Celtic 4 Accies 1.
Celtic now 3 points clear of Accies with 3 games in hand.
a lot of talk on here about touch, confidence
more talk about blatant penalties, dubious off-sides
even more talk of PT getting away with murder
but not much talk of this when discussing RD’s future
it was the same last year
make no mistake, Ronnie is being undermined in every possible way just as much as
Mowbray was
RD isn’t being allowed to progress
his tactics are being nullified by the officials, the players lack of confidence and free running, the players reluctance to make a mistake during tight games, the players anxiety (flowing down from the stands)
people say we should be light years ahead – we will never in a mllion light years be allowed to be light years
ahead
RD may not be a great coach, but hes being stopped from learning and progressing as a good coach
Por Cierto
You may be right or possibly he was just waiting for the ‘review’ which never really appeared.
Regardless, he deserves our support in this instance.