We spoke a while back about clubs’ footballing identities. The Red Bull stable, City Football Group teams, as well as those using Jamestown Analytics have similar characteristics to each other (despite enormous differences in resources, on some occasions).
Even unsuccessful clubs can have consistent identities, think Manchester United, or Newco, who rinse and repeat the same plan year-after-year. While some clubs can be successful without a coherent identity – they simply buy better players then their opponents.
If Celtic are to maximise their potential, they need a clear identity and that should be to find and develop players like Callum Osmand (19). It is a crime against football that Callum had not seen a minute’s professional action until six days ago. It is a crime against Celtic that he sat on the bench against Kairat Almaty in August, alongside Johnny Kenny (22).
Callum and Johnny have a long way to go to develop into Champions League players. You and I know to expect that, at most, only one of them will make the cut. However, they were good enough to deliver in a crucial game on Sunday and might have done the same in August.
We signed Callum on 30 June. No deadline day dramas, no fighting off Ajax, just the recruitment department preparing throughout the season and getting approval from the manager to bring in an out-of-contract player.
Johnny has been a Celtic player since he was 18 and was sent out on three loans before happenchance left a space in the squad this term. Then an injury got him a shirt. Can we develop him into a better player? Probably, but at a point, we need to commit to a football identity consistent with doing so.
There is an expectation that Hearts’ league challenge will suffer when Celtic and Newco spend their greater resources in January. I am more concerned with whom Tony Bloom could bring to Edinburgh from Brighton or USG. Hearts remain outsiders this season, but the challenge is coming. For Celtic, Callum Osmand is the model. Get good at it, get a manager who pays more than lip-service to it, or prepare for some harsh times.
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It takes some doing to have read every article on CQN for the last ten years and to still not get what the strategy is, including the article you’re posting your comments under.
I’m looking for some help. I’ll be attending the agm on the 21st. What identification will I need to gain entry?
I’ve trawled through the documents and can’t see any requirements.
Thanks.
“…the club cant come out of every window at odds with itself.”
Wise words.
If Mon/SM had been in the dugout at Tynecastle, Celtic wouldn’t have lost that game imo.
Celtic Manager’s the ‘ short ’ lists,……..wee Gordon, wee Shaun, wee Brendan, wee Neil, wee Lou.
It’s only two games, so I’ll be careful not to rush to judgement.
However, if this improvement trend is maintained Rodgers’ pronouncements that we didn’t have the players is going to look increasingly damning.
If Kenny and Osmand can prove themselves as reliable as a Kyogo or Giakoumakis then I’m all in on the model. I would much prefer to see hungry young boys coming in than tired old has-beens from the EPL like Carlton Cole or Ian Wright.
They need to be at the level though. On recent evidence both can do an excellent job for us. Both look really exciting have been liberated from team exclusion and stultifying tactics.
Bsr
Wee hauf?🤔
The smart guys are using guru’s in a data base that Celtic should be in, so that every player starts as a good buy, not just a replacement buy. More punts should be coming out developed from Lennoxtown without waiting too long for a Tierney to sell. Analytics? and yes here we have Hearts running rings round Celtic Glasgow failing to recruit ‘properly’ and still seemingly reliant on Tosh McKinlay’s contact list.
Commendable as it is ‘good value, zero debt’ but with welded on no investment just a mere shuffling of some of the Nicolas Kuhn wad, needs more urgent review now that the last Brendan voyage is well and truly over. CL qualification gets further away and harder and harder – see the coefficient. We need a new modern manager sharpish, Dermot Desmond ain’t no Glazer brother or 49er thank our blessed lord , – he already “has a good eye for a manager” but he needs to kick more PLC ass, and they are his staff even when they’ve to get the ole bhoy in, to move and shake.
In the week of the wrath of Dermot, irony smacks of Shamrock, former Rovers Liam Scales and Johnny Kenny both outstanding at Hamdump he owns 25% of them too he plays the patriot game as well as the Gowf.
Hail Hail
BIGRAILROADBLUES on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 3:29 PM
Bsr
Wee hauf?🤔
————
Any sign of Jota playing pool in the Sooside?
Speaking of Tosh McKinlay’s contact book, I was his next door neighbour for a few years. He had a very fancy old school light post installed outside his hoose. Quite fancy.
I just checked Google Street view and somebody has removed said fancy pole!
Isn’t that riveting?
Best wishes to Rainjurz Keeper Jack Butland recovering from his facial reconstruction
BOURNESOUPRECIPE 3.32
Apparently he has been back in to help with his recuperation. Even multi millionaires can’t resist £3 a pint. 😁
Aipple 3.50
Naw 🤣🤣
BIGRAILROADBLUES on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 4:26 PM
🎵Managers are wee whose lives are pledged to Ireland some have come from a land beyond the Sea 🇮🇪
But the leader was a Leprachaun 🍀
Paul 67, It needs to be a strategy of buying in quality and bringing through youth/projects.
I would like someone from the board to answer. How much money do we accumulate £70m, £80m, £120m.
Remember we are a football Club first and foremost. Now, if we are banking money for a specific reason tell the fans.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE 5.06
Ffs hahahaha 😆
Well we do not know how Jonny Kenny would have developed had he been given more opportunities at Celtic FC. Who is to say that he could not develop a partnership with Callum Osmand, not me. Anyways lets hope they both have successful careers with us. not one of them, both of them. As to the ‘model’ well we have had more than a few over the decades, produce and encourage our own from the late 50s to the late 60s. And later developing Maloney, McGeady, McGregor and Tierney, plus the likes of Ajer, Frimpong, O’Reilly et al.
There is no one shining path to glory, despite what they say in Peru. But what happens in Peru stays in Peru…
SenderoLuminosoCSC
Celtic Mac
Who recalled Johnny Kenny from Shamrock Rovers in January ?
Bournesouprecipe
How many starts did he get from then until the end of the season?
Answers on a postcard….
*And make sure ye put a stamp on it this time,,,
and whilst we’re looking at the model could we look at the timing of signings during the CL qualifiers, the effect the timings have on the fee which is eventually paid, how long it takes to get a ‘model’ player playable during the CL qualifiers (do we buy in the summer and expect a CL qualifier level player for the next season).
If the celtic family say ‘we want Celtic to be a successful CL club’ does that mean the same thing to everyone?
Now I suspect there are some on here who believe that the only worthy moonshine comes out of a bottle, but for those that dont look out for yet another Super Moon tomorrow, clear skies permitting.
The rising (of the moon) starts in the East at around 15.30pm moves South from there and sets finally in the West around 5am in the morning.
Get yer Pikes on yer shoulders….
BSR
Wee?…oui….
Duolingo French course worked brilliantly there…
Currently making the dinner but refusing to listen to Clyde 1 SuperScoreBoard after their disgraceful programme last night. Not a person from a Celtic background on the panel. Dismissed Celtic fans’ concerns about the decisions on Sunday but only too willing to give the Huns ages to loan and gripe about Trusty and Ralston while they eagerly weighed in too. Nope I’ve been a regular listener over the last 2-3 weeks but last night was a shambolic, one-sided, Hun propaganda broadcast. I’ll never listen in again.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 5:37 PM
Celtic Mac
Who recalled Johnny Kenny from Shamrock Rovers in January ?
…………………….
I did. I was the first to mention it here and I mentioned it on Twitter and Facebook. So I’m claiming the credit and a percentage of his next contract. 🤣
When I say mention it I mean I called for it.
TOSB
Stopped listening to it years ago…they sensationalise minor incidents to suit whatever agenda they’re working too…then sit back and wait for the phones to ring….utter dross…
BHEAVER
Tom McLaughlin 3:54
He did not slag off either player. He said that that they were only there by default because the club did not buy strikers in the transfer window. That’s the truth isn’t it. In fact he praised both their contributions, although he did say he would have been in favour of Kenny being sold to Bolton during the summer.
The point is, this was the morning after the semi-final and instead of celebrating the win, he used Kenny’s and Osmand’s performance and goals as a tool to attack the board, thereby sucking all the joy out of the occasion.
They just can’t leave it for one day and enjoy the victory.
CELTIC MAC on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 5:50 PM
Bournesouprecipe
How many starts did he get from then until the end of the season?
Answers on a postcard….
*And make sure ye put a stamp on it this time,,,
————————————
I’m Sweden .
Selected ahead of Yamada for CL squad refused Bolton’s 500k bid given a three year deal, and debuted by Brendan criminal Rodgers
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 6:24 PM
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 5:37 PM
Celtic Mac
Who recalled Johnny Kenny from Shamrock Rovers in January ?
…………………….
I did. I was the first to mention it here and I mentioned it on Twitter and Facebook. So I’m claiming the credit and a percentage of his next contract. 🤣
……………………….
Great shout 👍
31003 on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 6:16 PM
BSR
Wee?…oui….
Duolingo French course worked brilliantly there…
………….
Bon Mot 👍
How long can these peepul greet fur? Like a christmas card…always greetin’…
the originalsadiesbhoy
Good shout on your part.
BSR will probably claim that he cannot recall you doing that though…
Chairbhoy 1:54
“And really, the obsession with age needs to go imo – there is no indication Tony Bloom uses this a a key driver.”
————–
From what I can see Hearts’ signings are largely mid-20s upwards. Probably explains why they have hit the ground running.
The type of players that if Celtic had signed would be derided in some quarters as “mid-career journeymen”!
It’s been easier for Hearts to get to where they are than actually being able to go on and be competitive/win Cups Leagues and compete in Europe, they started from a low point and have improved yes, but Celtic has been worse initially, let’s wait and see come season’s end.
Celtic40me @ 2:44 pm,
Here is our strategy that our last Manager implemented to a “T”.
“Our successfully proven strategy has delivered stability and footballing success over many years and remains the same. We must balance the signing of players that can be developed and sold when conditions are optimal alongside the need to sign players who are able to make an immediate impact and deliver footballing success.
Chairman – Peter Lawwell
According to our Chairman, that is our strategy, the only thing we are good at is the selling when conditions are optimal.
Even then, it’s not what is optimal for the football team, it is optimal for the business.
That’s why preparing a Celtic squad preseason – when you have angered the Celtic Gods is like the task of Sisyphus.
Hail Hail
meanwhile the sfa are shelfing the performance schools as not enough talent coming through.
GlassTwoThirdsFull @ 6:46 pm,
And most certainly off piste…
Talking of which, how did Adam do at the weekend?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YzklrmuTI9E
Hail Hail
CELTIC MAC on 4TH NOVEMBER 2025 6:45 PM
the originalsadiesbhoy
Good shout on your part.
BSR will probably claim that he cannot recall you doing that though…
…………………………..
It wouldn’t surprise me with the size of his ego …… (total irony bypass from TOSB) 🤣
Seriously though, I watched every Shamrock Rovers game in the Europa Conference League and Jonny Kenny was just so good in all of them. He was scoring for fun. I rate him highly from watching those performances and I was telling anyone who would listen that his contract was running down with us and Kyogo was leaving and that we needed to get Jonny in before someone else took him off our hands.
I’m so glad BR has left and taken the mind games, at the expense of the team, with him. It’s unfortunate that both Daizen and Kelechi both got injured at the same time but I’m so glad that Jonny got his chance. He needs a run of games to show us the form he had with Rovers and he’s beginning to do that now and proving wrong, hopefully, those who said that he is never a Celtic centre forward.
Incidentally, the League of Ireland is improving year on year and SR and Shelbourne play good football. We should be keeping an eye on it to see if we can unearth some talents who will serve us well for the future.
“They just can’t leave it for one day and enjoy the victory”.
TBF the mob on here kept a lid on it yesterday, but were quick out the blocks when their Supreme Leader got a bit of criticism this morning.