Yesterday @SwissRamble on Twitter dissected Celtic’s finances. His conclusions are as expected, “[Celtic] are in good shape financially… thanks to their sustainable approach, though this owes a lot to their player trading model. Champions League qualification is also important, so the expanded format should help future prospects.”
Player trading is worth exploring. We have had the Asset Management conversation on CQN since our early weeks (2004), “Manage your assets or fail to manage your assets”. Recently, when we wanted to transform our worst season in over a decade, we sold our top striker (Edouard) and our top defender (Ajer) and acquired Kyogo, Jota, Carter-Vickers and others. It’s hard to believe how controversial this was in the early days of CQN, now we have seen the evidence, everyone gets it.
There needs to be clear objectives, though, what are we managing assets for? There are two fundamental targets I think we can all agree on:
Win the league.
Qualify for the Champions League group stage.
The latter will sometimes be fulfilled by the former. After a few years in the Champions League wilderness you might have convinced yourself that this is enough. I read plenty of glowing comments from the “Just being there” brigade, reflecting in the glory of attacking against a vastly superior opponent who scored eight against us over two games.
This is not for me and I believe that it is not sustainable either. Two, maybe three, seasons of cannon fodder in the Champions League and you’ll never hear from the “Just being there” types again. We need to compete, have genuine hopes of reaching the knock out stages and I believe this is achievable.
Having lived through a quadruple treble and now two nine-in-a-rows, I don’t want to settle for a perennial nip-and-tuck title race. I don’t just want to win the league this season, I want to win the league every season. Giovanni van Bronckhorst got perilously close to delivering a European trophy for Newco. If there is any stasis around Celtic Park right now, we will soon lose our dominant position.
But how, how do we make the great leap? You can vary a few metrics around the edges, but player trading is where it’s at. This is the only route open to us, we need to be better at it (despite the plaudits from Swiss Ramble) and we need to do much more of it. Always be ready to trade, be ready to sell and have thoroughly assessed replacements lined up. Don’t wait until our top talent has one or two years left on a contract, then stalls on a new deal with an eye over the border, which is where we have been recently.
The Edouard/Ajer strategy is better than allowing players to leave on a free, or holding them on increasingly high contracts until their talents wither (see 2000-05), but it underachieves. At best, it allows stagnation, but it more commonly sees us decline.
If we want to be part of the Champions League story, if we want to go on another long run of league titles, we need to learn lessons, and you and I have had some painful lessons in recent seasons. Edouard should have been sold in 2019, two years before he actually left. Sure, there would have been distress on the comments pages here, but we kept a player who eventually became ineffective – too busy working on his next gig. We need to dare to dream big!
As well as our (now) excellent recruitment setup, Celtic need the vision and strength to up their game. Look at Ajax and Benfica, they are also trapped in small leagues, but sell players for multiples of the £24m we got for Kieran Tierney. Do this and like these clubs, we can shop for more expensive talent ourselves.
If you can think of a brilliant alternative strategy, I’m all ears, but for now, we are faced with two alternate futures: repeat the glories and inevitable decline of the O’Neill, Strachan and Rodgers eras, or increase the velocity of player trading to a level that demonstrates the courage required to be a competitive Champions League outfit.
When we embark on our Champions League campaign in September, I want to have genuine hopes of reaching the knockout stage. That will not happen without a radical overhaul of the current squad, which means selling for top money and buying more quality players. “Learning lessons” from this season’s campaign will never bridge the gap, anyone who supported Celtic through the 90s will testify to this, so let’s not pretend otherwise.
The work should be underway already, we have two transfer windows and the rare luxury of a commanding lead in the league. Celtic, you have a talented manager who works hand-in-glove with his scouting system. Aligned both to a level of ambition that would give lesser mortals a nose bleed. No more settling for “Just being there”.
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@Tom 5.55pm…….Top news mate on your latest tests…… I will always be grateful for your detailed history
and info on the Prostate….I finally go on Fri for results of the 12 cuts they took a couple of weeks ago2.40pm.
Although the keep sayin numbers are 9.1 etc….I feel ok ….
So not expecting any Negative news….Keep well Tom .
H.H
Gene
Hope he has a great world cup.
Looks like he wants away
https://twitter.com/aboutceltic/status/1592793322367483904?t=2FLc-HlhbnKEEQE6qvklcg&s=19
Apologies for the source of that tweet Gene
Despite the aborted launch attempts in August and September for technical issues that were easily overcome 53 years ago; I must say the launch seems genuine this time.
Great news from Tom.
The 1969 moon landings are still under VAR review on some websites!
coneybhoy
Including this one
Celtic Mac
😎
The Moon……..I’m over it already.
Said at the game on Saturday when asked who would you sell or think wants to go I said Juranovic (wants) …….big Gia (sell), love the guy but we can do better.
strictlybusiness csc
THEBHOYFROMU.N.C.L.E on 16TH NOVEMBER 2022 10:26 AM
The Moon……..I’m over it already.
————-
👏
CONEYBHOY on 16TH NOVEMBER 2022 10:30 AM
HH
@David 66 R.I.P. Young Don…sad loss mate….
H.H
I wonder if Paul 67’s article is in bit part reference to the rumours circulating for a good while now about Josip Juronovic and Matt O’ Riley looking to leave in January.
HH.
Tom
Top story of the day👍👏👏
If Juranovic thinks he can get to Atletico or Manure, then Tony R can, too.
Jura has the speed for Euro games (which we feature in less of) but is positionally suspect at that level.
Tony is a better dribbler and crosser.
Fag paper between the two.
I don’t think Matty said he wanted away.
Surely Jota’s bouffanted head is more likely to be turned.
GENE @ 7:32 AM
“Someone mentioned the return of Mickey Johnston next season – to date he’s only played in 7 out of 13 games – not exactly encouraging but we’ll see how he goes on for the rest of the season”
—————————————-
I think there’s a misread there, Gene.
Mikey Johnston debuted for Guimaraes in October and he has played the last 6 games as a starter- he seems to be doing fine. His team are up to 6th place, one spot behind the European places.
Sftb
Lazy journalism on my behalf – I saw he got subbed in his last game after being booked
DALRIADABHOY
Noted
Build it and they will come.
Seven pages of comments and a really good read.
Maybe you should do articles about finding, buying, improving and selling players more often Pablo?
Good morning from a wet North Staffs
Good to see the blog back
Quietest nightshift ever!
Shout out for Kevin Sinfield – 7 ultra marathons in 7 days for MND. The terrible condition that took our very own Jinky.
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sinfield-7-in-7
https://twitter.com/CelticFC/status/1593144448736989184/photo/1
Team news
BT
Thanks!
What time is the KO please?
8.45 this morning it’s on Celtic TV
Unfortunately I’ve a school run and a doctor’s appointment – won’t be back until 9.45 so should at least catch the 2nd half
In general terms I couldn’t agree more. Celtic need to cash in on added value much quicker. Our recruitment has often been shaky (Amido Balde and a load of other names I’ve blanked out) so this much be much sharper – data, data and more data is how we will do this. We CAN compete in this area a lot more readily than we can on the pitch.
I recently mentioned to an ex-professional player that Celtic should be more tactically flexible to cope with Europe and his view? More difficult than you might think – he liked the Ange approach because ‘at least everyone will always know what they are supposed to be doing’. If we do it with better players by cashing in and recycling the money quickly – we have a chance to get those better players.