Jahmai Simpson-Pusey (19), joined on a season-long loan from Manchester City yesterday, following a tradition of City central defenders after Jason Denayer and Dedryck Boyata took the same route.
We have a settled first-choice on the right of central defence with Cameron Carter-Vickers, while on the left we vacillate between Liam Scales and Auston Trusty. Jahmai is right-footed, so it would be a surprise to see him dislodge Liam and Auston, he is more likely to deputise for Cameron – who needs a reliable backup.
With Liam, Auston and Hayato Inamura available for the left position, right side is covered by Cameron, Jahmai, Stephen Welsh (25). and Dane Murray (22). Seven is at least one central defender too many. Dane is in the last year of his contract and Brendan Rodgers is likely to spend the remainder of the month making a final decision on whether to allow him or Stephen (who has two years on his contract) to leave the club this month.
Playing our League Cup game against Falkirk on the Friday gives us extra recovery time before the first qualifier, five days later. In deciding to play Livingston at home, three days before the return leg, instead of exercising the option to postpone that game, Brendan clearly feels his squad will need gametime. Given that Sloven and Almaty will both have played twice as many competitive games as Celtic at that stage, it feels a good call.
Regular reminder: there are 13 days to add to our Champions League playoff squad and 25 days to add to our season squad. Getting it done right is more important than getting it done early. Fretting about our Coefficient Monkeys is not a good look. We spent £27m between 6 Aug 2024 and the end of that month. Try to remember how successful sides work.
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Dessybhoy / Texas tim
They have sold 3 (first team guys) and 1 injury to squad who were in CL last year. I believe.
Plus also terminated Dedryk Boyata.
So £40m income from the 3 who left for Brugge
Brugge have signed 6 players for a total of £28m. 3 of those are free.
So a net transfer income of £12m. Assuming no residual development payments etc.
Apologies 8 signed with 3 frees since January.
Net still + £12m
B78
Over investing, where at Celtic? What i see is we either buy a job lot of cheap and ultimately ineffective players, or we spend a lot more on potential, we also sell at the drop of a hat our best players and every club knows that. What will we do when McGregor hangs up his boots? Forrest gets 30minutes a game, replacements aren’t there. We need careerists at the club but our academy has failed to provide guys who can have a first team place at Celtic.
B78 – “Brugge have signed 6 players for a total of £28m. 3 of those are free”.
Do you know how many are “club signings” and will immediately go out on loan versus how many were signed by the manager?
Over investment, utter and complete bs.
Does anyone on cqn advocate over investment?
This garbage gets posted every day.
Hopefully Jimmy picks this up in the morning.
Jimmy, I’m not a betting man, how do you go about getting a bookie to make you a price on something where no book currently exists e.g. me scoring the winner against Aberdeen on Sunday?
Cheers👍
Over profit each transfer window he surely means.
Stadium and squad each year neglected no upgrades or no news or a proper plan or structure in place a mute Nicholson still .
I noticed the centre of main stand was vastly improved close season meanwhile I had not hot water or healthy snacks at tea time on flag day.
Also no signal to call and see how my 75 year young Mum was at her new restricted view seat thatsa other story.
TIMMY7_NOTED on 6TH AUGUST 2025 10:18 PM
Over investment, utter and complete bs.
Does anyone on cqn advocate over investment?
This garbage gets posted every day.
——————————
In fairness mate, usually only by the same ahem ‘ experts ‘ 👍
https://substack.com/@palestinewillbefree/note/c-142763644?r=bc5xc&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
‘….every penny will get re- invested…..’blah blah blah,we have a Board now,who would rather pay £11 million Corporation Tax, than spend £11 million on players that we need right now.
We spent £11m on Engels😱
BADA BING!! on 6TH AUGUST 2025 11:28 PM
‘….every penny will get re- invested…..’blah blah blah,we have a Board now,who would rather pay £11 million Corporation Tax, than spend £11 million on players that we need right now.
——————-
Who would you buy? 😂😂😂
With the benefit of hindsight, not Idah, Engels or Trusty.
But hey ho, give him a blank cheque book.
I can understand the board’s buying dilemma.
I had the same dilemma buying a simple pencil.
2B or not 2B.
gies peace about not paying corporations tax
you make a profit pay it.
anything else is hunnery
Nite nite bedwetters et al. Here’s hoping we qualify for the European Cup group stages and the quality players will then agree to sign.
Ave Ave
btw.
could anyone tell me what player left Celtic for a big fee but they themselves did not want to go
I thought Burnley78’s point about there being ‘…no value in over investing in a team playing in Scotland. The risk reward is too great’ – was a fair enough insight. We don’t need a team of Salah’s to top the SPFL.
To me, it didn’t read that he was saying we always OVER-INVEST but that it makes no sense to fill the squad and team with high ticket, high wage players just to be able to win the SPFL. It’s a fact that we do pay top dollar in terms of wage expenditure in comparison to most of our domestic competitors; and our recent trophy haul at home has been good and, under BR, we’re looking more like a Euro threat (and we all want to build on last year’s decent Euro showing)
But I’d guess the lessons of ‘doing a Leeds’ in pursuit of Euro glory is probably still informative for a lot of club suits in the East End and other parts (except Govania, mibby). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_a_Leeds
As Depeche Mode satirically warbled, you have to ‘Get the balance right’.
24KAIRATOPPORTUNITY CSC
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM @ 11:51 pm,
“With the benefit of hindsight, not Idah, Engels or Trusty.
But hey ho, give him a blank cheque book.”
Of course you hark on about these International Players, as if they are useless.
They are not, they contributed greatly to an excellent season in their inaugural season.
You state they have lost 50% of their value, that’s 13 mn loss of assets at Celtic PLC
They have not, their is little to no loss in their transfer value and they added value to the first team by playing up to UCL level football
I know you have little interest in football as such and look on these transactions in purely business terms.
Yet most of us look at what a player can give the team, rather than the bottom line – Maslow’s Hammer.
So let’s get…
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam….
Into context, we have been running out version of moneyball for many years now.
The players we buy, even if they fail use a huge amount of company resources, transfer fee, salary, expensive staff time, expensive equipment time, expensive clinicians time…
The time and cost to procure them, the time and cost to buy them.
As stated before, my opinion is the Board are playing fame theory, a zero sum game.
They buy loads of players, with a view of developing them and selling them for a profit.
Some succeed and a large profit is made, many fail and the losses are written off.
The issue is though, all the players are bought and paid for, mainly through supporters money, season books, merchandise, subscriptions etc.
That money flows in from supporters every year.
The money is used for transfers and salaries and paying Club support staff.
Well over one hundred million pound has been spent on transfers, probably half again on salary and costs – a huge some of money on players like…
Mohamed Bangura
Andre Blackman
Radius Ibrahim
Lassad Nouioui
Amido Balde
Steven Mouyokolo
Derk Boerigtor
Holmbert Fridjosson
Jo ings Berget
Teemu Pukki
Stephan Sepovic
Sandy Janko
Login Bailey
Nadir Cifci
Scott Allen
Micheal Duffy
Darned Fisher
Eboue Kouassi
Kundai Benyu
Lewis Morgan
Armstrong Oko-Flex
Andrew Gutman
Daniel Arzani
Issof Bayo
Marian Shev’d
Manny Perez
Patryk Klimala
Chrispher Jullien
Ismalia Soro
Luca Connell
Abd Hamed
Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo
Vasilis Cornelius Barkas
Albian Ajeti
Liam Shaw
Osaze Urhoghide
Sead Haksabanovic
Oliver Abildgaard
Kwon Hyeok-kyu
Oh Hyeon-gyu
Yuki Kobayashi
Gustaf Lagerbielke
Odin Holm
Luis Palma
Of course, when the players are sold for a profit, the Board not only take credit for the great recruitment, they also take the profits and stick them in the savings account, presenting the illusion they are actually making money.
While in actuality it is a zero sum gain.
Now look at the recruitment since BR&CO took over
Kuhn
Sinisalo
Schmeichel
Bernardo
Idah
McCowan
Trusty
Engels
Jota
Tierney
Doohan
Nygren
Osmand
Inamura
Yamada
Simpson-Pusey
A great mix of low cost development players, high level development players, first team ready development players, first team experienced players, quality squad players.
Since Ange left we have sold over 110 mn in players, a colossal amount.
BR&CO spent 45 mn in players that are already worth over 65 mn.
The only player we sold from that list we make six times what we paid.
That does not include the development of existing players, such as e.g. Liam Scales, Matt O’Riley, Daizen Maeda….
Who have ensured our squad value is maintained.
If we look at the players out since Ange left, we will see phenomenal squad management, players who retired, players who moved on for personal reasons, HVPs sold for good profit, fringe players gone who failed to make the grade…
MF Aaron Mooy
FW Jota
GK Conor Hazard
DF Osaze Urhoghide
GK Vasilis Barkas
DF Carl Starfelt
DF Bosun Lawal
MF Ismaila Soro
FW Albian Ajeti
MF Yosuke Ideguchi
FW Mikey Johnston
MF David Turnbull
DF Alexandro Bernabei
FW Liel Abada
GK Joe Hart
FW Sead Hakšabanović
FW Rocco Vata
FW Oh Hyeon-gyu
GK Benjamin Siegrist
DF Bosun Lawal
MF Daniel Kelly
DF Yuki Kobayashi
MF Matt O’Riley
FW Mikey Johnston
MF Tomoki Iwata
MF Liam Shaw
FW. Kyogo
MF Kwon Hyeok-kyu
GK. Scott Bain
DF. Greg Taylor
FW. Nic Kuhn
DF Gustaf Lagerbielke
FW. Luis Palma
The transfer value in, the salaries saved, the club staff, resources, expenses and equipment saved, is huge.
All in all some great first team squad management, we are managing the squad, developing players, playing at an improved level, have top class Club staff, selling HVPs on a regular basis.
The Club needs support, the Club needs investment to carry on improving and carry on making money…
However, the smartest guys in the room can stick to their mantra…
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam
Arne, Auston, A-dam….
Have a great day fholks…
Me?
Am aff Ooot
Hail Hail
Fame theory = Game theory
How much money will be enough for Rodgers?
£156+ Million Celtic could only get past £6 Million+ St Mirren on Sunday thanks to a deflected goal.
So how much will be enough?
Rodgers needs his lying arse reined in. “Oh I never bought the duds!”
If his purchases turn out to be pish because he lets directors buy his players,[something which wee lovely Fergus McCann was going to sack Wim Jansen for NOT allowing directors to buy 2nd, 3rd, 4th, choice projects] and when they don’t measure up the manager looks like an ass!
Brendan is either a puppet playing the PLC’s good cop, bad cop, piss take game, or he is hedging his bets waiting for some clown club to come in and save him from his “Celtic Hell?”
Or, he simply hasn’t got the steel balls that Neil Lennon showed when he told the PLC liars to get stuffed, leaving them with their heads up their asses for 8 hours before they could cobble together one of their nothing burger statements!
Before bringing in wonderful Ronny to empty the park. lol
https://youtu.be/rd7JHI7kQCU?si=E3DgzyjzEeepqzem
Tom Grant on ACSOM talks about Fergus McCann and his Celtic Park plans.
QUADROPHENIAN,
The point is the constant scare stories of “over investment” being posted as a dire warning every day. Who are they aimed at ? Where are these supporters advocating this death by over investment?
There aren’t any. It’s all bs designed to make all investment seem worrisome.
good read chairbhoy
and point well made (barbara)
or even good point well made
TIMMY7
I read the blog most days – skim read some of the more erratic ones tbh – and I have genuinely missed the constant overspend scare stories you refer to.
My point in reference to B78s post, was that it would be imprudent/impossible to bear the costs of, say, an EPL kwality squad just to be top dog in Ecosse, and believe that would make us immune from odd Euro pumpings.
This is a golden era for we fans, and under BR we gained some respect in Europe last year playing some real good stuff. I hope we can continue to trend upwards – with every department doing better than it did in previous years.
But begets the question; how far would we need to go at home and abroad before the blogosphere and its devotees said: “Gee, everyone that works for Celtic (backroom, board, coaches, execs and players included) are really doing us proud ?”
Good morning all from Govanhill. I hope you are all hale and hearty 👍
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 6th August 2025 10:47 pm
Hopefully Jimmy picks this up in the morning.
Jimmy, I’m not a betting man, how do you go about getting a bookie to make you a price on something where no book currently exists e.g. me scoring the winner against Aberdeen on Sunday?
…………………….
You would need to CONTACT the Bookie either by Phone and/or Email.
BEFORE COVID, BET365 were very helpful over the Phone whenever I had an issue with a Bet etc however , since Covid its impossible to contact them by Phone as it appears that they STOPPED Punters from speaking directly to an Advisor.
I am NOT sure about other Bookies allowing access via a Telephone call to an Advisor, but in recent times I have used a Bookies ” LIVE CHAT” and/or Email, IF I have an issue to discuss with them ( LADBROKES and BETFRED ) ?
HH.
The Blogger Formerly Known As GM on 6th August 2025 10:47 pm
………………
I meant to add, that Ive had Four Accounts with Four different Bookies Online. ( BET365, LADBROKES, Wm HILL and BETFRED )
Off the top of my head, I would imagine that ALL Four have Advisors available in their ” LIVE CHAT” sections, IF they can NOT be reached via a Phone Call ?
HH.
Saint Stivs on 7th August 2025 1:48 am
btw.
could anyone tell me what player left Celtic for a big fee but they themselves did not want to go
—
Kieran Tierney?????
Love the Hibs ‘Heritage’ Top. Great to see they are not embarrassed by their birthright and the Harp anymore.
Real class story re that strip and its history. Real class from them bringing out just 1875 limited edition Tops in its image.
4 Hibs tops a season feels excessive so not sure they will wear it much mind you. V Rangers would be good for fun. They will wear it v Hearts to replicate original game.
I’ve just read videocelts looking for signs of incomings to be honest, I don’t agree with Martin o Neill in that I doubt very much that BR may already have signed a new contract, quite the opposite in my opinion in view of him not being there to maintain anything. Maybe some attempts by MON to apply balm to the supporters worries on this.
Timmy 7
All I have done is state reality.
No scare stories.
Love within our means and not risk or budget on CL qualification has been the mantra since the 3rd share issue to bail us out after MON over spend.
It has not always been easy and some managers lived with it vs strong rangers teams better than others. Especially when that lot were spending like crazy.
WGS is best case in point. 3 leagues and 2 last 16 in CL.
There is no doubt that was the strategy PL was brought into deliver for owners. No doubt has delivered incredible success.
Also no doubt some transfers have been fantastic and no doubt some have failed. The numbers speak for themselves. I don’t need to manipulate them and make up things about who signed who and when etc. win some lose some but over all we have won.
The challenge appears to be what now ? A manager in final year. Do the owners give him the keys to the safe or not ?
The others across the city have a manager on a 5 years deal who is accountable. We don’t ?
I don’t know if that is the reason but it is what seems to be emerging.
Timmy 7
A few weeks ago Chairbhoy and others dismissed my understanding that the manager had a contract for several months and had not signed it. Personally I was concerned about that at the time. Most suggested it was ridiculous.
It seems it is causing issues despite chairbhoys oft quoted ‘special relationship’. The good news for the BR fans is I don’t think that relationship is down at Ange level right now. I hope for all our sakes can be sorted……or dealt with one way or the other soon.
Spikeysauldman @ 7:42 am,
Cheers!!
Burnley78 @ 8:42 pm,
Timmy7_noted @ 7:14 am, made an excellent point, it gets to the heart of the matter what you said @ 8:42 pm,
”There is no value in over investing in a team playing in Scotland. The risk reward is too great.”
Not risking money on UCL qualifucation meant no UCL qualification, where is Paul67’s no excuses in all this? This was one of the many excuses we used when regularly failing to get to the UCL.
The Board was happy to risk money during Martin O’Neil’s time as they thought EPL riches may beckon for the PLC. The gamble didn’t pay off and the F.C. picked up the tab.
On the moneyball list I posted earlier, we have lost, yes money down the drain lost, over 100 mn on those players, who did the risk rewarded analysis on that?
We have sold 110 mn pounds worth of players since Ange left, how could reinvesting the gains made be considered over-investing or risk?
It’s nonsensical.
We have huge revenues, thanks to supporters, we make profits, thanks to the team performing and Executive management, we have money in the bank due to profits made on player sales*.
So reinvesting the transfer money to get more income from the UCL** and other competitions and improved merchandising, is not risk, it’s not over investment, it is living within our means and it is the least the PLC can do.
The only time we have failed, as in 2020/21 is not over investment, it’s incompetence.
Luckily now, we have competent people throughout our club and the shooting ourselves in the foot, from the past is gone.
*Players that are developed by our Club, players who compete in top competitions
**Remember we are talking about investment, not spending money, we buy assets in the way of players, we are now very good at that and the recruitment strategy means the risk is minimal.
Burnley78 @ 8:40 am,
Thanks for the name check;)
Hail Hail