With Leigh Griffiths set to sign in the next few moments our business for the January transfer window is complete. As well as Leigh, we added 20-year-old Icelandic striker Holmbert Fridjobsson, and 23-year-old Norwegian left-midfielder, Stefan Johansen.
I expect Johansen and Griffiths to be holding down a starting place no later than next month. Johansen’s case will be made all the more straightforward if Joe Ledley accepts an offer from Crystal Palace, although he may choose to wait until the summer before leaving.
We’ll be wondering why we signed Mo Bangura years from now, he patently didn’t look a player at Celtic.
Neil Lennon has a fixer-upper with Leigh, a player he has taken a number of references for and believes he can turn into a productive Celtic player. The player’s personal history is something he has to put behind him now. I’ve read many comments on this subject over the last few days, with some empathy, but it’s just as well Twitter wasn’t around in the 60s, 70s or 80s. Some of our heroes from past eras have been more than a tad off-colour in my earshot.
Time for Leigh to get onto the field and do what he does best.
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hun skelper
19:53 on 31 January, 2014
micktt19:50 on 31 January, 2014
But some think he’s not happy about LG signing which is rubbish HH
————————————————
Just no pleasing some.
HH
I’d say that if the boy knew of Celtic’s interest in mid December then even if he’s not first choice then Lenny certainly fancied him.
23yr old goal machine for £1m….thanks that’ll do nicely. He will mature. I reckon he will thrive and become a seriously sought after player.
GlassTwoThirdsFull
20:08 on
31 January, 2014
Okay, how long is it going to be before someone asks Leigh if he’s keen to play in the “Old firm derby” (sic)?
“”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
Leigh may become the first Celtic player to score against Sevco…if
their still around.
I liked him with Hibs because I noticed him.
Immediately.
My prime criterion for a decent footballer.
Leigh…didn’t excite me but hope you are a roaring success. Stefan…excites me and don’t let me down….the fridge….no idea. Building a technically gifted bunch of young fellas. Back 5 and their supporting acts superb, Biton looks fantastic, Commons mercurial, Teemu a great player and improving. Would have loved a Henrik clone but maybe time for someone to step forward and be a hero in hoops.
Oh and the dead Huns are still dead too :)
Good times csc
a ceiler gonof rust
19:55 on 31 January, 2014
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Not tried the Glen Moray, I’m still over in Germany at the moment. Will be over for the CQTen in March. The Bon Accord is on my FB and the owner, Paul, is a mate. He has got quite a collection of Whisky on his gantry. I thought it would be just down your street.
See you in March?
Ambrose to Fulham?
Brian McDermott sacked by Leeds.
Ross McCormack live on Sky giving heavy hints he may want to leave now.
Last minute bid from us ?
Big Celtic fan.
Welcome to Leigh , great signing
Folks,
re the Champions League.
Whilst you can never say that qualification is certain I look back at last year and make some observations.
First, we disposed of Cliftonville fairly comprehensively — with all due respect to a great club.
Second, against Elfsborg we played with a defence of Wilson and Ambrose when Wilson wanted away, and we ran with the usual suspects up front — Commons, Samaras, Forrest etc.
Third — against Karagandy, we lost goals over there to long throws ( sucker punches ) and though an inexperienced defensive partnership being very nervous.
Since then, the defence has really stiffened so much so that we are currently in record breaking shut out form… and that is playing against the talent that Scotland has to offer such as the Stevie Mays, Billy Mckays and the Dundee United boys.
Virgila and Efe are much more of a partnership now than then, and that takes nerves and pressure away from your midfield, your full back and your goalkeeper.
This current Celtic line up would not lose two goals against Karagandy.
Further, I think we are stronger in the midfield. I don’t expect to see Kayal too often– though I could be wrong — and I think we have a better balance to the midfield area than when we played qualifiers last year.
Up front Commons is doing the business from that “in the hole” position and I will be intrigued to see what Freidjohnson brings to the party.
What is Balde’s goals per game ratio?
We may still need a penalty box “sniffer” in my opinion but I do think that we should be stronger at this moment than where we were last July.
So, to add to my previous post (now I’ve had the benefit of reading a number of the posts on this Blog), here are my thoughts.
We do not, I repeat do not, operate at the top of the food chain in football, so please get a reality check anyone who believes we can snag a marquee signing, unless he’s 36 and well past his best.
What we’ve got then is an extremely limited pool of potential talent to draw from. That’s why it’s brilliant when we pick up a Wanyama or VanDijk while they’re “under the radar. There will always be a Bangura mistake from time to time. In the EPL they pull off these catastrophic signings with insane regularity, but they only talk about the big successful signings.
In this case we’ve picked up a relative unknown for 100,000, a national prodige (Johansson) for 1.9M (in the summer he could have gone to Holland for 5 or 6M) and finally we’ve acquired the services of a Scotland international who scores goals in the SPFL and given the opportunity may well develop into a CL goalscorer, much as Hooper (another unknown when we signed him) and Tony Watt, who as it happens cost us peanuts from Airdrie.
So our outlay of 2.7M (assuming LG cost us 800K + add-ons) this window, should Ledley sign for CP is softened by the recouping of 800K. That’s good business and gives us money in the kitty to hopefully pick up that Turkish target or some other target we just missed out on this time.
Remember this is the SPFL where it is extremely difficult to attract decent talent, so I’m sure many of our targets have said, “Celtic, yes, but not the SPFL.” That’s our dilemna and until circumstances change within the game at a broader level, that is what we’ll have to contend with sadly.
I’m personally happy for us to work within these current constraints in the way we’re doing and challenge ourselves once more to qualify for the CL group stages and hope with a lucky draw, good form and even more luck on the field of play, we may once more get into the knockout phase.
Ultimately we’re punching above our weight outside our shores, so let’s be realistic when it comes to these transfer windows and hope that we can keep unearthing the next Victor or Virgil, players that could achieve with us what Hooper, Wilson and the others achieved last season.
HH
Surely we cannot be thinking of selling Efe?
Like Efe and he’s part of a world record chasing defence.
Burghbhoy
Crackin player, Him and LG now yer talking.
If JL goes who knows?
KLV
Hail Hail
Tweety Pie Heed Is Here
I, for one welcome him and I am looking forward to see how he links up with Commons.
Forget the daft bhoy stuff, opportunity has just kicked your door down, grab it.
when leigh start scoring for fun, who will be first to say ……..
why didnt we buy him last summer
There you have it – in Black and Yellow
Soooo new debate..
Whos got the worst hair cut…
Griffiths or stokes?
B-)
Neil on FiveLive – spoke well. Joe on his way down to Palace. Almost certain to go through.
Burghbhoy
20:19 on 31 January, 2014
Ross McCormack, the poor man’s Kris Commons.
Was at the Leeds v Ipswich game on Tuesday night, he was awful, didn’t look fit. In saying that his strike partner was Diouf who was even worse so he was trying to do the job of two.
£4m bid rejected today, he’s not even worth half of that.
Have We Signed Stevie May Yet…?
With A Foward Partnership Of Watt-May..
With Griffiths Operating In The Hole Behind Them….
And Veteran Commons Coming On As A Second Half Sub To Reprise The Lubo-Role
We’ll Terrorise Teams In The CL…..
Make No Mistake…..
Mallum 200%…..
Stokes…? He Can Go And Help His Father Run Their Grotty Pub…..
CL Semis….Here We Come !!
Bhoylo83
20:24 on 31 January, 2014
You couldn’t make a proper haircut between the two of them
BBC 3 Davis Cup Murray winning easily v USA.
ACGR
Mail to you.
HH
BRTH
Would you play our play project’s in the remaining games this
season to see if they could cut the mustard,or go for these silly
clean sheet unbeaten record’s?
Posted already?
http://www.celticfc.tv/freeview?vid=3745
Griffiths will end up our top goal scorer this season! All the doubters will quickly change their minds once he starts doing the business on the field no doubt about it.
With regards to posts above, Celtic need to try bring in players who we can hold onto for many years or entire careers or at least have that spine of players. Leigh is that type of player. Its a nice plan to have players that cost peanuts and sell on for huge sums, but Celtic need to have players long term to consistently challenge in Europe.
Its must be sole destroying for Lennon sitting their thinking he has a player on his hands for example Hooper, Wanyama just for them to be sold on quickly although its part of the plan, VVD is the next one. Any manager would want to hold onto those players for years.
I sit here as a fan and say what if we kept Hooper and Wanyama where would the team be now would we still be in Europe this year and progressing etc etc?
When did we last have a regular pick centre forward who was Scottish?
Gerry Creaney?
I like the idea of Leigh Griffiths playing for us and Scotland up front.
I will be at the rugby on Sun at 3pm in Dublin but glued to the phone worrying about the clean sheet!
Johnbhoy1958, good considered post mate, puts things in perspective.
If we get Indepence will Scotland get its own Davis Cup team?
Fancy we would hammer any English team.
Jings…! Crivvens…! Help M’Bhoab…!
With Griffiths And Stokes….
We’d Have The Handsomest Forward Partnership….
Still……..Just Lucky That SFTB And HamiltonTim Were Never Good Enough To Pull On The Hoops…..
Thankful For Small Mercies….
See Ya At The RoondAbout…Laters !
TSD
I see your old pal, Mrs. Robinson’s boy, was arrested and jailed for 18 months for mortgage fraud.
That’s the kind of thing the EDL and yourself were always telling us those pesky foreign Islamists did.
I must ask Alanis if that’s ironic.
BRTH 2018:-
“This current Celtic line up would not lose two goals against Karagandy”
Its not Karagandy that I`m worried about – they were ranked 262nd or thereabouts in the UEFA rankings; the lowest ever ranked play-off contender. I`ll guarantee that whatever team we face at the play-off stage of the Champions League this year will be better than Karagandy. Remember we could have drawn Legia Warsaw, for example.
Factor in the fact that we`ll not be playing our home qualifiers at Celtic Park or even Glasgow due to the Commonwealth Games, then I think we will have our work cut out to get to the Champions League this time around.
Also – I expect predators from down south/ overseas to be very interested in Virgil van Dijk and Fraser Forster so it may not be the current defence that takes the field in the CL qualifiers. It might even be Gary Hooper all over again with outgoing transfers not finalised until the season has started and unsettled players playing in the CL qualifiers.
For these reasons we walk a tightrope in terms of CL qualification, regardless of how impregnable we look in Scotland right now.
Brogan – You silver tongued fella. That was what I was trying to say – I think we are in better shape than we were at the start of our campaign this season. Virgil better than Wilson (tick), Biton better than Vic (mmmm), Johanson better than Joe (yep)……
After our 6-1 defeat in the Nou Camp how many
would have predicted a run of 9 consecutive league wins
and counting without conceding a goal.
Kris and Virgil have been the key players in this superb run
ably assisted by Fraser who has been in unbeatable form.
The vulnerability that we have shown defensively in recent seasons
is no more and offensively all that we lack is an out and out goal scorer.
Hopefully Leigh Griffiths will be the final part of the puzzle.
Bhoylo83
20:24 on
31 January, 2014
Soooo new debate..
Whos got the worst hair cut…
Griffiths or stokes?
B-)
nope Pukki is shocking…….
EVENTUALLY the egregious Mynah Bird’s gotta go, joe.
Worry not.. The Glove puppet is now available for those in need of cerebral sustenance.
Next question from the lumpen masses…. ?
Valentinesday
I think you have to play Johansen and Griffiths at some point given the fees paid.
However, there is a great argument for keeping the back four as steady as a rock with the exception perhaps of young Fisher so that you go to the qualifiers really confident.
Midfield there are no real risks in there.
I would want to see more of Balde and I don’t mean three minutes every game and I want to see what Freidjobsson is about so I would want to do both.
There is no better time to introduce young strikers than when you are winning– it takes pressure off them —- so at 60 minutes etc Neil should be switching the team about IMHO
Robert
We have to take the rough with the smooth in this transfer policy – part of the proposition beyond improving the player is a stepping stone to England. We take the risk where they don’t have to. That means buy low, improve and then release with a premium that should let us go back and replenish….
Virgil is too good for Scotland. He ll go and we ll make a massive return.