Great news that Mikael Lustig and Emilio Izaguirre have extended their contracts until 2017. Footballers’ careers flow on a few distinct tracks. Some are too hot for their clubs to retain, Victor Wanyama, who declined a contract renewal with almost 3 years of his initial deal remaining, fell into this category. Some, like Georgios Samaras, will represent diminishing value to their clubs, and attract only diminishing contracts.
I could make an argument that the players in the third category, who are highly valuable to their club, but are not so valuable that they are impossible to retain, are more important than the latter.
It’s important for Celtic to have outstanding achievers (especially up front) but clubs find it difficult to remain on-strategy if they have significant churn each season. Transfer income is great, and often needed, but ideally you would look at your squad around this time of the year and want to change no more than 3 players over the summer.
I reckon Celtic should be able to hold onto Lustig, Izaguirre, Matthews, Ambrose, Brown, Commons, Mulgrew, Stokes and Forrest until the club want to move them on. These players are the mainstay of our squad, hopefully Johansen will prove to be too. Forster and van Dijk fall into the same category as Wanyama and Hooper – they will have high paying options in England.
Forster and van Dijk will help get us into and compete in the Champions League, but two or three gems are useless if they are surrounded by players less polished bling.
The last 24 hours has been a salutary lesson on what will continue to happen until Celtic appoint a manager. The Daily Mail got the ball rolling when someone told them Roy Keane was leaving Dublin to speak to Celtic. This was good information, in as much as it was true, Celtic did meet Roy Keane, but the ‘paper put inappropriate weight upon it.
Soon everyone and their dog was reporting the deal was done. Which surprised Celtic.
Today’s news – there is no news.
‘News’ will continue to break and eventually one story will actually be the news we’re waiting for. There is value (reputation and advertising) in rushing out with a story before it’s confirmed or others are doing the same, and little consequence (zero damage to reputation and you get to keep the ad money) in getting it wrong, so stay tuned for the next instalment. Only this week, Pope Francis was talking about papal retirement, maybe he has another gig in mind.
London Calling
Let me know if you would like to attend the CQN Question and Answer evening at the Manor Club, Wimbledon, on 21 June, with a confirmed line-up of Lisbon Lion, John Hughes, and our own Brogan Rogan and Auldheid, celticquicknews@gmail.com
Visit the CQN Bookstore to get Tommy Gemmell to sign your personal copy of his tome, All the Best.
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First???
Maybe!
Darn
H.H.
Up the Celts
GCT
I may well be many things, but shallow ain’t one of them.
Have a nice day.
A Ceiler Gonof Rust
12:04 on 30 May, 2014
Lefty, ffs don’t ever bring her to a hootenanny. She’ll have us all locked up.
HH
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No need to bring her, she looks on here now and again,
Her left eyebrow raises, her head shakes from side to side and she smiles broadly while saying to me “yous are well matched”
after reading posts by to name a few and protect their anonymity:))))
A fhella who golfs at Carnoustie and another who has emigrated tae Swindon:))).
Thank you all for the kind regards.
weeron
12:19 on 30 May, 2014
I see that some folk are questioning the contract extensions of Izzie and Lustig. Amazing…..
Not sure if this is driven by an unending desire to criticize Celtic and/or Peter Lawell….or just a case of living in the 60′s when managers were responsible for everything – including things that they weren’t qualified to do.
By any measure, these contract extensions are good for Celtic.
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
As I said earlier – before being interrupted by new article – well said!
TBB
Is the sacked EK manager, Ian King, the same eejit that writes guff in the papers?
curlybhoy,
The new Doc Holliday…
I see I am in the first 5 – must get out more.
I don’t normally post across from previous articles but since Victor is mentioned……
leftclicktic,
Congrats to your Daughter on her achievement, you should rightly be over the moon about this. Friday is always a Great day for Good News. Let us all hope to read many more Good News contributions today.
If Victor moves to Spurs?
Celtic will be Very Happy.
Congrats to Ms. leftclicktic who rose above the constraints of paternal genetic inheritance :-)
As the man sais no news, have a look at this, interesting.
Helicopter with wrecking ball knocks down dangerous rock spire.
http://wimp.com/helicopterspire/
Soon everyone and their dog was reporting the deal was done….
apart from Roy’s dog
HH
I assume we have a sell on clause in Big Vic[s deal that will give us a percentage if he moves on to Spurs?
The way it’s going Southampton won’t have 11 players left to start next season
Oh, and it is really Good News that Emilio and Mikael have extended their stays at Celtic.
Brilliant news.
Need some advice about Tablets. Hudl or Kindle any thoughts? por cierto
If we are putting pressure on a candidate, through interviewing Roy Keane, AND we are awaiting news of his assistant, rather than the manager’s position, then I can put 2 and 22 together and come up with the revelation.
Our new asst. manager will be Swalex.
It’s what Roy would want. And DD owes him payback for stealing his horse.
It all makes sense to me.
Paul 67,
Who made the decision to extend the contracts and on whose opinion now that we are without a manager and others?
Btw, I’m over the moon about it. HH
Great news re Izzy and Mikael – two top players.
We have to hang onto Commons. Given his age we wouldn’t get much for him but would suffer if he left. Forrest I’d maybe consider selling if we got a decent offer.
Happy Rutles Day!
http://youtu.be/H9AtD37HRiU
tighttrousersCSC
Paul,
good article. I think that the signing news today is good for the Club.
There are Celtic supporters however, who yearn for the MON type manager. I believe – I certainly hope – that these days are over. You will recall that we spent all of our available money on top players, who were at the top of their game. These assets depleted over time, and they all departed the club with no return. Short term thinking.
Given that managers tend to stay less than 5 years, it is understandable that they would focus only on that time period, MON did. It was great while it lasted. But it didn’t last.
Common sense suggests that some decisions be made with a longer term view.
On your list of players that we might keep, I wonder about Matthews. Don’t get me wrong, he is a top player. However, we signed him in similar circumstances to Ledley. Well thought of down south, and a free agent. This likely meant that he (like Joe) got a better deal financially than otherwise would have been the case. In Joe’s case, we were unable to replicate that.
We might end up in the same boat with Matthews. I’d test that water with an offer. If he doesn’t bite, then we need to get the best deal we can for him. We are well covered in that area.
On the managerial front, there is no-one who will make a difference on the domestic scene. That league will win itself for the next couple of years. The manager who will make a difference is the one that will get 8 or more points in the CL group…….
Paul67 –
‘Breaking news’ takes on a new meaning these days.
As I said in the last blog, people are standing in front of TV cameras outside Celtic Park giving the impression they know what is going on.
In the past 90 minutes there has be the ‘lets’s go over for all the latest news from Celtic Park’ line on three occasions, and they have still to inform viewers that two international defenders have signed new three-year deals with Celtic.
por cierto
12:34 on 30 May, 2014
Need some advice about Tablets. Hudl or Kindle any thoughts? por cierto
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Viagra! ask acgr for advice :)
We are currently going through the same farce that we went through in the summer of 2010 when it was June 9th before NL was appointed. Everyone knew it was going to be Neil but we had the nonsense of waiting for weeks whilst name after name was linked but had no chance of getting the job. There is no exhaustive search around the world to get the right man, DD decides which UK based manager he wants and that is who we go for.
The same is happening now. Make appointment and let him get on with it. We have a CL qualifier in 6 weeks.
SFTB
Yip. Or at least, the same eejit who edits the Sports section.
Arsene Wenger has signed a three year extension with Arsenal, so he’s off the list
weeron
12:42 on 30 May, 2014
On young Adam, I would be taken aback if we got an offer from an EPL tea,, as Adam needs to toughen up and stop being a target for clumsy tackles. He needs to dish out some stronger tackles.
Good going forward but a weak link against top opposition.
HH
sipsini no advice required on those! por cierto
Paul67. While vic said he did not want a contract extension, what value did the 12.5 m give the team , the manager and the fans. Absolutely nil
We watched as our team were roller coasted in the CL and domestic cup competitions in midfield only for the sake of a great balance sheet at the AGM Neil got he haw of vics money to reinvest in the team
What would we have rather seen
A) our club picking up the scottish cup
B) a great balance sheet
Vic like many players throughout the world would have played on 100% he was no di canio
PL statement about our healthy balance sheet 24hrs before our midfield was overrun by Aberdeen in the cup, sums up our club at present
Bit sad
Another good piece but I would tend to disagree on one aspect of what you said,
‘…two or three gems are useless if they are surrounded by players less polished bling.’
Martin O’Neill’s team were a prime example of two or three gems surrounded by those of less polish.
Let’s think about this, IMO the gems ie ‘High paying options in England’: Messrs Larsson, Sutton, Hartson
One could argue Lambert and Petrov (given his transfer fee) and to a lesser extent Lennon and Thompson.
But the others? Douglas, Valgaren, Mjallby, Agathe, McNamara, Laursen, Sylla, Maloney.
I would argue that they were of the slightly less polished variety.
Under MO’N, we had a strong unit and good management/coaching. It shows that with the right ingredients, you can achieve with two or three gems surrounded with good, hard working players.
That is why I think we need the right man at the top (sic) with the addition of only two or three quality signings.
Supedupercoisty has demanded to kno the names of the people standing in front of TV cameras outside Celtic Park giving the impression they know what is going on.
Today’s Quote is
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
BY C. Archie Danielson
Sipsini
Ye’r on form today. Already hit the post, and now the one-liners are coming thick and well, pedestrian!
HH
Great news – arguably the best two players for Celtic in last season’s CL
EKBhoy….
Adam is a bright lad. Barcelona at home, playing at right back. Before coming to us, he was touted for Man U. I think he’d do well in england.
Sydney Tim…..Celtic did the right thing re Wanyama. Once a player makes it clear he is not extending – and it didn’t take Victor more than a few weeks to make that decision – then the Club’s best interests lie in getting the best deal possible.
Carlo Ancelotti not seeing eye to eye with that nutter Perez at Real Madrid according to the Italian media.
Can we add him to the list?
Speaks English and has family on the east coast!
HH!!