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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kitalba
see where youre coming from, that was a definite turning point. But my all time favourite against them, and as with yourself Ive seen plenty, is Murdo in 79.
HH
Let there be House
Kit. Thanks for reminding me about Maloney’s goal. Puts a smile on my face. Are u and tom going to have a farewell drink and wish him good health and a safe trip hame
Tom would loved to have shared a beer again with you
Warrior Keane has earned right to say yes to Celtic:
FOR some the issue facing Roy Keane could not be more basic. He has to weigh the meaning and consequences of saying yes to Celtic – and turning his back on the Irish national team for a second time. They say there could be no coming back.
They are wrong, of course. They are the kind of people who write their judgment in stone – and then nourish their outrage down the years.
It is 12 years now since Keane stormed out of Ireland’s World Cup training centre in Saipan and that’s a long time to weigh the rights and wrongs of a day of wild and hugely damaging insubordination.
When he agreed last year to become Martin O’Neill’s number two he made it clear enough that he had spent quite a bit of his life reflecting on the wisdom of behaviour which made him a pariah among many of his compatriots.
He didn’t exactly don the sackcloth and ashes, he didn’t make a barefooted pilgrimage to the Aviva Stadium, but then he has never been that kind of character.
For him, contrition was always something akin to ducking a tackle, which was one reason why he became arguably the most consistently competitive performer in the history of the Premier League – and why he was able to carry Ireland, virtually, on one leg to those World Cup finals in the Far East.
What he did do was suggest persuasively that his heart was, in its own maverick and brooding way, still attached to the cause of the Irish game.
O’Neill welcomed him aboard enthusiastically enough and it is no surprise that he has shown more understanding than most over Keane’s current dilemma. This is because O’Neill, a notable over-achiever in his own distinguished career as a player and a manager, is both highly intelligent and a man of the world.
Nobody needs to tell him that Irish international football isn’t so rich in contemporary strength and recent tradition that it can afford to toss away the presence of a man of genuinely iconic status.
It is true, of course, that Keane has a genius for creating ambivalence wherever he goes. His failures as a manager at Sunderland and Ipswich dismayed all those who believed that inevitable success on the touchline would be a natural extension of a superb playing career. But his patience ran short when dealing with players lacking his own natural-born competitive arrogance. He couldn’t transmit to others that towering self-confidence which persuaded him he could tackle any odds – and on one unforgettable occasion even challenged deeply his most obdurate foe, Arsenal’s Patrick Vieira.
There is no doubt, of course, that when Keane walked away from first Sunderland, then Ipswich, he was a man both deeply disappointed with himself – and filled with a formidable number of demons.
Now those who claim to understand a little of his psyche, say that he has created for himself a little distance from those disasters.
His performances as the lead analyst for ITV’s Champions’ League coverage has been consistently strong and, at least some like to think, increasingly balanced.
So who but those who like to nurse old wounds and prejudice would benefit from any ultimatum that Keane now has to choose, once and for all, between the big job in Scottish football and, say, the possibility of succeeding O’Neill in charge of the national team somewhere along the line? Certainly not the national team.
The word from the Irish dressing room is that reaction to Keane is overwhelmingly favourable. Divorced from the pressure, and the frustrations, of day-by-day club management, Keane has been in a much better position to concentrate on the fundamentals of the game, the need for certain consistent attitudes.
From what better source, after all, could they receive them? Keane, heaven knows, has made his mistakes on and off the field but if we want a body of work which speaks of an over-riding drive for success there are surely few more compelling examples.
Another football icon, England’s World Cup-winning Bobby Charlton, still speaks in awe of the Keane performance which carried Manchester United into the 1999 final of the Champions’ League. Keane almost single-handedly took on Juventus in their own stadium to brush away a two-goal deficit and Charlton confesses to an almost match-long abandonment of director box etiquette by standing in admiration of the Irishman’s performance.
There was a similar quality to Keane’s contribution to the group game victory over a formidable Holland which, ironically, carried Ireland to the Saipan stand-off.
For all the mis-steps and the agonising, this is still the aura Keane carries into any football gathering. Who knows, it might just be that he needs the Celtic experience as he seeks to expel the last of those demons. Maybe he will see a re-immersion in club management as the last vital stage of a necessary rehabilitation at the heart of the action and the decisions rather than anything he, or Ireland in the long-run, might gain from today’s secondary role.
Keane, let’s face it, is not a secondary person. For the longest time he had the demeanour of a warrior leader, someone who lived according to his own rules. Now that time has maybe brought some vital modification, he is surely worth another look. Celtic believe so. Ireland, you have to say, would be foolish not to agree.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/warrior-keane-has-earned-right-to-say-yes-to-celtic-30318417.html
Petec
It is also a favoured haunt of Freemasons fae Scoddland, well I know a couple who have property over there. That merits the tag haunted. :))
Aye no doubt its haunted with the ghosts of imperialists past….:))
House it goin?
petec:
there is a video of every goal ever scored against them but I’m not posting it otherwise you guys won’t talk to each other.
I’ve got to go, I’ve got a youth game of football to go watch and the coach of one team is a massive Celtic Supporter so the least I can do is go lend my support.
We have issues no doubts about that, but bigger than those issues is our history and our consequential mountains of joy; all the collective tears we’ve ever shed over our club flowed down those mountains, scaring them in beauty, and still do, and at the bottom the tears they pool to give immortal life to Celtic Park and her congregation.
Without our tears our joys would be hollow. Without our fears our glories would not be indelibly tattooed on our hearts, without our compassion for our fellow supporters and strangers from afar our legend would be small, without respect to each other we’d be a rabble, and without homage to our departed who showed us their way, our lives in selfishness’ would be less than what they are.
SydneyTim:
I would have no problem with that, none whatsoever. I do wish Tom safe home and I do wish him well, I hope both he and his wife find lots to amuse and enjoy in Scotland.
He’ll be back with his kids and for all of them that will be the best.
peteC
Whats your thoughts on this years Bildeberg meeting ?
Still to this day we have people in amongst us who give Tony Mowbray pelters…..
In case it was missed …
THEY CHEATED US
Thindimebhoy
02:53 on 31 May, 2014
Petec
It is also a favoured haunt of Freemasons fae Scoddland, well I know a couple who have property over there. That merits the tag haunted. :))
Aye no doubt its haunted with the ghosts of imperialists past….:))
______________________________________________________
I remember Ian Wright talking about the Worst job ever and he spoke about the Jamboy. The dehumanised person was smeared in Jam as the ELITE walked around the golf course. It makes me sick thinking about that but it happened.
Love is a real conqueror.
PeteC
How does that correlate with the vast amount of black washhandbasins?
You’re a hard nut to crack,…even for me
kitalba
02:58 on 31 May, 2014
petec:
there is a video of every goal ever scored against them but I’m not posting it otherwise you guys won’t talk to each other.
I’ve got to go, I’ve got a youth game of football to go watch and the coach of one team is a massive Celtic Supporter so the least I can do is go lend my support.
We have issues no doubts about that, but bigger than those issues is our history and our consequential mountains of joy; all the collective tears we’ve ever shed over our club flowed down those mountains, scaring them in beauty, and still do, and at the bottom the tears they pool to give immortal life to Celtic Park and her congregation.
Without our tears our joys would be hollow. Without our fears our glories would not be indelibly tattooed on our hearts, without our compassion for our fellow supporters and strangers from afar our legend would be small, without respect to each other we’d be a rabble, and without homage to our departed who showed us their way, our lives in selfishness’ would be less than what they are.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You are such a powerful writer, it is coming from yer Heart, everytime. Thank You and God Bless ye.
petec:
There never was such a thing as “a rubbish goal” against them, no not one and there never will be one.
‘the bould bhoys’
I really do have to go, I’m going to miss the kick off but before I go you should talk to ‘Imatim’ from Adelaide about the extent of the cheating that went on. I know it almost broke his heart like it did mine.
Please, please, please, you give yourself the respect you’re due and simmer. Don’t silence yourself thru’ angry words.
Kitalba
CQN LEGEND
Hail hail
Kit
http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/celtic-fan-jailed-for-racist-tweets-to-rangers-duo-1-3428339
the bould bhoys
why was Mowbray not due pelters ?
‘the bould bhoys’
03:01 on 31 May, 2014
peteC
Whats your thoughts on this years Bildeberg meeting ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Bilderbergers are being commented in the Mainstream, that is not good for anyone following them and I’ve stopped tracking all these things, it can drive you mad. All my energies are put into getting people to Believe in God and that isnae easy at all, olde FFM says I’m subtle, I certainly dinnae feel subtle.
Having knowledge of the dark happenings of this world is useful when trying to convince people that there is an Almighty Creator but if a person disney want to listen, there isnae anything I can do but Pray and Ask God to open the ears up.
Life is very harsh and tough, I really understand this, all I can do is use my own life experiences to try and let people know that the Spirit World is real, it is so real.
Anyways, Off to bed, got to get the wee guy later on Today.
Take Care and God Bless You.
21stMay
As I said earlier TONIGHT,…I used to be called a “conspiracy nut” because I said the referees used to give them the odd penalty.
To spell it out….look where we are today and how the so-called Governing bodies have bent over backwards to accommodate a DEAD entity.!!
Kinda makes the odd penalty decision superfluous now,… dontcha agree ?
peteC
There is the man I know and love.
God Bless.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/30/like-ed-balls-at-bilderberg-have-you-ever-been-refused-entry-to-somewhere-important
‘the bould bhoys’
03:04 on 31 May, 2014
Still to this day we have people in amongst us who give Tony Mowbray pelters…..
In case it was missed …
THEY CHEATED US
_______________________
The Maloney penalty set the tone for the whole season.
I won’t ever post anything negative about Tony, he was too nice a person to deal with the rabid and desperate cheating hun Establishment.
HH & NN
21stMay
Tony Mowbray is an honest and decent man…..HOUNDED by the Scottish press. HOUNDED by the FOOTBALL AUTHORITIES and ultimately HOUNDED by his own people.
Sad state of affairs.
He kept quiet and tried to do his best for us despite the blatant cheating. He took it on the chin.
Ive never criticised the man,…NEVER WILL
HH
Petec,
The bildregergers p**h has been floated for a few years now… It’s contingent of the followers of Nostradamus.
Yes there is an upsurge from the east and the terrorism will continue, it has always been that way in whatever land.
We can never change it, only the powers that be has that facility and I’m damned sure they have no reason to…..money talks…I’m sure you’re aware of that song.HH
Bildebergers PISH?
FLOATED?
Eh…Explain.
….
NOSTRADAMUS WTF are you talking about?
“powers that be” who is the powers that BE HAHAHAHAHAHAH
“we can never change it”
UHUHUH
You place all your trust in this “Powers that be”?
Who are they?
HAHAHAHAHAH
In the King James Bible (pure pish by the way) which angel, with a name meaning “light bearer”, falls from grace and is known as the Devil?
Floated for a few years now….
I hate arseholes like you who dismiss this stuff so easily..
Have you done ANY research?
How long have this conglomerate of evil been getting together for tea n scones Sipsini?
WHEN DID YOU FIRST HEAR ABOUT THEM….. Oh wise one…!!!????
Mags
Ask Campbell
“We’re mid way through the process and there’s between 5 and 10”
definitely been planned before NFL left. IMHO.
‘the bould bhoys’
03:49 on 31 May, 2014
The arch angel Ogilvie said “Gabriel”.
the bould bhoys
I take your point, but tell me a Celtic manager that hasnt had to put up with that ? btw I went down to Middlesbrough for his testimonial game , put up with all sorts of shit over the couple of days we were there and have no good memories of that place at all. But I was there to see an ex Celt and have no bad feelings for the big man at all. Just thought he was a poor manager, and not exactly a great player for us either As ever tbb, all about opinions, I know my Celtic, I know our history and its my opinion the big man was lucky to be a part of it, twice.
and Regan said “UNICEF”
21st May
Tone had the misfortune of being in place at the time the Orcs were DESPERATE for Champions League money,…otherwise they were ……DEID!!!!
:)))
Ah nostalgia ..dontcha love it? I’m already nostalgic for the beginning of this sentence. Kinda reminds me of the nostalgia 50% of CQN’rs remember Jock Stein. I however remember more the way Celtic treated him after legendary accomplishments that will never be repeated in any of our lifetimes…..
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Stein%2C+Jock+-+Directorship+Offer+%281978%29
Racism is not defensible period neither is sectarianism
But if you swapped the word monkey for fenian its unlikely you would get a year in jail for saying it
Would like to see sectarianism in the courts treated as equally reprehensible as racism
Same bad boys to me
The bould bhoys,
I’ve read your p**h tonight… Do yourself a favour and get a sleep.
Mags
Are you (and your bros) non-Catholic?
:)))
sipsini
Foxtrot Oscar ya Prick