In 1998, MSV Duisburg sold Celtic 33-year-old Lubomir Moravcik. Yesterday, Celtic returned the favour by selling Duisburg 34-year-old Marvin Compper. I think we did the better of the exchange. Marvellous Marvin, as he was never known at Celtic, goes into the annuals of Celtic history alongside the likes of Rafael Sheidt and Dmitri Kharine.
In the summer of 2017 Dedryck Boyata made it clear he would not sign a new contract, Celtic acknowledged this. No promises were made (they never are, of course), but Celtic intimated they would try to backfill.
The plan was to have a replacement at the club in January 2018, allowing Dedryck to be sold. Marvin was scouted, went through the approval process and was purchased. It took less than 83 minutes for Brendan Rodgers to decide the player was not suitable for Celtic. For all his brilliance, this episode is emblematic of the glaring weakness of Brendan Rodgers management: recruitment.
The consequences of this were significant. Dedryck did not get his move last summer. As a consequence, he went on strike, placing the first poison in the well that month. He missed the Champions League qualification defeat to AEK Athens, leaving Jack Hendry to fill the gap. Sentiment in the dressing room was not what it should have been during the most important weeks of the season.
Whatever tally you are keeping on the cost of Compper, you have to consider the liability of a central defender on strike when we go out of the Champions League to a cross ball-goal.
Neil Lennon seems keen on Rapid Vienna left back Boli Mbombo, who he hopes to sign within the next 24 hours. Before we get too carried away, remember, we lost both a left back and a right back this summer. I expect at least three full backs coming in, even if we don’t lose a further player.
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Right Back… that’s an interesting one.
To my mind Stephen O’Donnell is a middle of the road, Scottish Premiership journey-man.
I don’t think ability wise or technically he would benefit us in European competition.
Haven’t seen much of the lad Jack Stacey, but again you base a perception on the various good reports that come from down South, fans of Luton. English football league journo’s / pundits etc. On that basis, Jack Stacey seems to be highly regarded. I think he could be the one. Fingers crossed.
Adam Matthews for me, should be a no go… A football career heading nowhere… we shouldn’t let sentiment get in the way.
EMERALDBEE\O/ STILL PROUD TO BE AN INTERNET BAMPOT on 3RD JULY 2019 1:50 PM
An Tearman @ 12.58
I was in in that Celtic end at that game. Magic!
…………….:
My 14 year old self was also in the Celtic End that day. I can also confirm that it was …….. magic. :-))
HEBCELT on 3RD JULY 2019 2:33 PM
Big Wavy bizarre signing? Where did this news come from? please not the MSSM or Owen Coyle’s granny. Do you have a reputable source?
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Our very own reputable Lennybhoy. I’m afraid :(
Big Wavy that’s good enough for me H H Hebcelt
I am always happy to see Lennybhoy post as he’s more reliable than the SMSM or even Celtic rumours on Twitter
But it’s not 100%. Rekeem Harper?
Picture: Boli Mbombo is in the Building! Set to Sign.
https://celtsarehere.com/picture-boli-mbombo-is-in-the-building-set-to-sign/
O’Donnell + Adam Matthews would be less than inspiring acquisitions.
Celtic please don’t fill positions, a jersey just for the sake of it.
Find the absolute very best we can get, within the parameters of our budget
An Tearman @12.58pm today:
As has been well documented on here and on other sites that April day in 1965 was the beginning of the modern Celtic story. Personally I had experienced Scottish Cup Final defeats to Clyde, Hearts, Dunfermline and Rangers before Billy headed us into the future.
As a 17 year old I too was in the Celtic end and then back on Crown Street, Gorbals afterwards. Unrestrained joy prevailed.
Ruggygman
Agree, Jack Hendry was also previously at Celtic, need better than those you name.
An Tearman,
I was directly behind the goal where King Billy scored the winner. What a view!
HH
GARCIA LORCA on 3RD JULY 2019 4:16 PM
As a 17 year old I too was in the Celtic end and then back on Crown Street, Gorbals afterwards. Unrestrained joy prevailed.
*I was also 17 and in the Celtic end I also had a wee lemon curd with me, 2 years later I would marry someone else.
NEVERALONE on 2ND JULY 2019 10:54 PM
Wee Bobby…..My first ever game at Celtic Park around 1962 was the probable v possibles (or was it whites against greens?) In any event a hugely excited wee boy!
*Even more so was that was our first glimmer of a young Bobby Murdoch.
Several days later he would open the scoring in his debut at Parkheid against the calvinists in a 3-1 win.
Nacho Monreal has left Arsenal by mutual consent.
So they have got rid of a LB just as Celtic has signed one? Worrying.
They’ll need to pay the going rate if KT is going, surely thats the one thing we can agree on
T29- join the dots….
There is some confusion over the Monreal thing. Arsenal haven’t confirmed it themselves but its out there.
Ignore the previous post.
A few posters suggesting we should spend a Jullien type sum in buying a righr back. Might I remind people the Jeremy Tolyan was a six million pound man.
Also, like everyone else, I want our team to be as strong as possible.If, however, we see buying as our main manner of strengthening , then we risk losing some superstars of the future.
It is, of course , very difficult to know who will make it and who won`t but we need to give the Mikey Johnston`s of this world a fair chance.
JJ
HOT SMOKED on 3RD JULY 2019 4:57 PM
A few posters suggesting we should spend a Jullien type sum in buying a righr back. Might I remind people the Jeremy Tolyan was a six million pound man.
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We shouldn’t spend the money because we got a guy on loan who turned out to be every bit the distressed loan purchase every January loanee feels like ?
What about:
1.Getting a head of recruitment
2.Build a better scouting department
3.Spread the net, do the diligence and get a better hit rate.
4. Recognise our right back academy player ain’t good enough. Another highlighted failure in the club.
Go spend the friggin money Celtic on a right back with a decent pedigree.
Big Wavy
I didn`t say `…We shouldn’t spend the money…`.
I was pointing out that were we to ` spend the friggin money Celtic on a right back with a decent pedigree.` we might still be terribly disappointed.
JJ
I also said that I wanted our team to be as strong as possible.
I see a man in Paisley, who was attending court to watch his friend’s sentencing hearing, was asked to leave the court as he was ‘inappropriately dressed’. He was wearing a Celtic top.
TONTINE TIM, was only 12 in 65 so missed it, you might have been at my first game, celtic won 9-0 and frank haffey missed a penalty.hh.
TIMALOY29 @ 1:45 PM,
Well once again we have a good story well told.
However, I’m unfortunately going to stick a few facts in, if you want to play the blame game maybe you can tell me whose fault it is/was:)
In the summer of 2015 the rather splendid partnership of VvD and Denayer left Celtic, Mulgrew who was a utility player but a darn fine Centre Half (in my opinion, seem to remember a lot of fholk not agreeing), was still with us.
We brought in Boyata and Simunovic. Boyata seemed well below par and Simonuvic had a crocked knee.
The Jozo signing was way before BR’s time.
After playing part of the season with injections it became apparent that Jozo couldn’t continue, he went off and had an operation, so we went and paid top dollar for Sviatchenko to plug the gap – he wasn’t a regular Danish International.
This was Ronny’s last season and this was the Centre Half mess that Brendan Rodgers inherited.
Ajer remember was brought in as a midfield development project.
Charlie Mulgrew was out of contract and Jozo was in Belgrade recuperating.
We tried to sell Jozo to Turin but they weren’t having it.
Charlie Mulgrew had blotted his copy book with Ronny and was out of contract when Bremdan Rodgers arrived, we allowed him to train at Lennoxtown until he found a Club – he went to Blackburn.
With qualifiers imminent BR turned to Kolo to steady the centre of defence – the big man did a great job through the UCL qualifiers but didn’t have a full season in him.
So that’s where we were – remember?
Now Boyata came on leaps and bounds under BR
BR had a look at Ajer and decided he was a ball carrying central defender and not a midfielder.
Jozo was still injury prone and patchy but on his day the big ghuy was a skelper.
We offered Boyata an extended contract before he went to the 2018 world cup. He didn’t sign it.
It was thought that he would have been sold and BR requested a Centre Back and Lee Congerton found some potential replacements.
They were never signed and when Boyata came back from the world cup Fulham offered 9M for him, as BR didn’t have a replacement he refused to sanction the transfer. Fulham increased their offer but BR stood firm.
Boyata ran his contract down and left this summer stating he hadn’t refused to extend his contract at Celtic and had talks with the managers (plural) but an agreement couldn’t be reached.
After the Boyata saga and bringing Benkovic in a great expense on loan, we now have, four years after VvD left, a fit, commanding Centre Half – or so we hope.
Hail Hail
MIT
Perhaps the court officials should invest in a couple of standby Sevco tops so that fellows like this can be covered over appropriately! -))
GDT
Couldnt do that … would cause too much confusion…. how would you know they aren’t judges?
:)
MIKE IN TORONTO
Easy….because judges wear theirs UNDER their robes.
I thought you knew about legal matters! ;-))
TIMALOY29 on 3RD JULY 2019 1:45 PM
CHAIRBHOY on 3RD JULY 2019 12:59 PM
The value that Brendan Rodgers placed on Boyata was illustrative of his lack of faith in alternatives.
First of all he decided Charlie Mulgrew wasn’t worth keeping around and we allowed him to leave under freedom of contract. We replaced him with Kolo Toure. I don’t think that was the right decision.
Brendan lost faith in Kolo halfway through that season after he self-destructed against “some German team”
We still had Erik Sviatchenko and Jozo Simunovic available. They actually were the two CB’s who made the biggest contribution to the Invincibles season. Still, BR decided to get rid of Erik.
He then signs Compper who gets injured and written off. He plays Hendry out of necessity but clearly signed Compper because he didn’t think Hendry was ready.
Then, by keeping on Boyata & signing Benkovic late in the window (subsequently playing them as his first choice pairing) he admitted he didn’t fancy Jozo, Ajer, Compper & Hendry as first choice.
Rodgers inherited a decent situation at CB with Ajer, Simunovic, Mulgrew, Boyata & Sviatchenko. You have to wonder if he was better just sticking with that!
He blundered his way through it.
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Almost as though defence is a significant Achilles heel in his coaching abilities…..as so clearly demonstrated at Liverpool when they should have won the league.
HH jg
Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo has arrived.
HH. ?
Or BBM for short….
Back ups, Back ups, ? – we don’t need no steenkin back ups.
Hot Smoked
Yes, Jeremy Toljan cost 6M Euros a full 6M Euros more than Mikael Lustig.
Point earlier is, there is an element in supporters thinking where we want stockpiled money to be spent and to be seen to be spent.
Sure you’ll always get a good Bosman popping up like Lustig did 8 years ago, but the likelihood remains in football, the same as anything else you buy cheap, you buy twice.
We do not need squad fillers, when NFL is busy working his way through a shortening list of unwanted players. Celtic fans want money spent on better quality players, that only Celtic can afford.
Sarajevo is not a pointer as to how much money you spend on a right full back, we should be signing a CL quality player well beyond the Sarajevo game, and unless we pull a rabbit oot of the hat , I’ll wait for a player from a better league which will require some accumulated funds to be spent.
BIG PACKY 1 on 3RD JULY 2019 5:26 PM
TONTINE TIM, was only 12 in 65 so missed it, you might have been at my first game, celtic won 9-0 and frank haffey missed a penalty.
*naw was trying tae play the game myself, like big Jock would say “I was average at best”. I did a couple of years later get tae know the goalie that saved his penalty tae a standing ovation fae the Celtic crowd.
BTW both the diamonds goalie who went on tae play for the black north and big Crazy Horse Frank now live in the same part of Oz, the former is friendly with Wispy.
JAMESGANG @ 6:14 PM,
I’m not quite sure where your coming from on this, if I’ve caught the wrong end of the stickI apologise…
Timaloy said, “Rodgers inherited a decent situation at CB with Ajer, Simunovic, Mulgrew, Boyata & Sviatchenko. You have to wonder if he was better just sticking with that!
Mulgrew had walk off the park and down the tunnel when he played for Ronny Delia. He was out of contract when BR arrived, PL let it run down. Celtic would have to offer a new one, they might not have offered one or he might not have accepted the terms, either way can’t remember whailing and gnashing of teeth when he signed for Blackburn
Ajer was playing Midfield for the Academy – BR and his staff made him the defender he is now
Simunovic was in Belgrade recuperating from a knee op, we tried to off load him without any luck
Boyata was a bombscare, BR and his staff made him the defender he is now
Sviatchenko was not at the required level for Europe, he served us well domestically in my opinion and we got a few bob back on him.
When Ronny took over he had VvD, Denyar and Mulgrew… think he had it much better than BR.
Also if you compare the same 2019 defence under BR and under Lenny then BR doedn’t look too shabby. Domestically one cheated goal was all BR’s defence conceded.
Hail Hail
Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo’s daa hates the huns
Some of the rewriting if history when it comes to Brendan Rodgers is shocking. The man delivered a double treble and we couldn’t deliver on even basic transfer targets. He was forced to recruit players at £1m or less to replace key players. The entire strategy was a busted flush, to lay the blame at the door of Rodgers is pathetic. There are signs we are getting our act together but it is long overdue.
Co-efficient
Celtic 24.00 Aberdeen 5.50 Sevco 5.250
@celticnation
Brendan Rodgers has spent more money at Leicester in one week, than he did in 2 1/2 years at Celtic.
BOURNESOUPRECIPE on 3RD JULY 2019 7:06 PM
Brendan Rodgers has spent more money at Leicester in one week, than he did in 2 1/2 years at Celtic.
new teef ?