Two years ago Celtic made a call on the fitness of Jozo Simunovic after receiving specialist advice from Harley St. It was a value judgement on a player who has blossomed into an excellent defender, but who requires a specific training regime and is rested at times.
There are parallels with Rivaldo Coetzee, who failed his medical despite his injury never interrupting his professional career thus far. Celtic’s recruitment format is evident, buy and develop talent who can be retained or sold at a profit, but the latter option is only available if the player can pass a medical, and for Coetzee, that means an operation and recuperation period.
Brendan has the option of playing Kris Ajer in central defence from the youth ranks, or can move Mikael Lustig inside. Nir Bitton could be moved there for domestic football, but I don’t think we’ll see the Israeli at centre half in the Champions League group stage.
We have a first-choice pairing, but as has been illustrated with Dedryck Boyata and Erik Sviatchenko both out injured, while Jozo needed to be rested, we could do with cover who can operate at Champions League level.
Teenage Jason Denayer’s trajectory looked assured when he left Celtic in 2015 but the years have not been kind. He played second fiddle at Galatasaray for a year before being a jack-of-all-trades at Sunderland – once playing the No. 10 role. Needless to say, there are those who don’t see the potential in him we did.
The parallels with Dedryck Boyata, his Belgium international teammate, are striking. Dedryck was developmentally ahead of Jason when the latter joined Celtic in 2014, but that picture changed when Brendan Rodgers put Dedryck on a firm path, as Jason’s stock went the way of Sunderland’s.
The player would be a hugely popular signing for Celtic, but he’s just one name in what’s sure to be a stressful next 24 hours.
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We are Celtic
HH
Hokey Cokey time. In,out,shake up the team.
Who’d be a boss?
SOUTH OF TUNIS on 30TH AUGUST 2017 12:00 PM
MACJAY1@ 11 53 .
Wow ! . Really . Thanks for telling me . Things you learn .
======================================================
Just spreading the love , Mate.
Next hoot Boab?
Not forgetting the other victims of SFA discrimination.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/15672375
traditionalist88 on 30th August 2017 12:02 pm
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 30th August 2017 11:51 am
The caveat with the Gospel is that it is only ‘the gospel according to…’ some lad who had less tools at his disposal for research than modern scientists, of course ;)
HH
Clint Hill is available.
HAPPY HOOOOPY BIRTHDAY to
BOBBY LENNOX!!!!
Lion,hunskelper and all-round good guy.
Not appreciating the word ‘stressful’ in the context of this article, hope BR gets who he wants and no losses of key players.
HH
Reading about young striker from PSG
Hope the GB have been made aware he is a bit
sensitive about guys with rifles on banners
winky eye thing
Holy Yer Wheest.
From previous.
When I was lucky in the ballot I had no problems with taking my bhoy to Ibrox.
As long as you stick to routes you should its ok, put it like this I’ve always felt safer at Ibrox than Tynecastle.
As long as he’s not a sensitive soul and can put up with sectarian bile!!!
Hail Hail
No Denayer—please! He has went backwards. rather give Ajer games. Why are we scrambling for loans? Should have tried to get Coetzee months ago.. he could have had medical and had surgery. and would be able to move onto next target to get in before CL play-offs. We had all money from last years CL and full season tickets. Do we have a scouting system or does PL just phone his son at MC and ask if we can give them some money?
hopefully Jozo Simunovic will stay, but my fear is his heads been turned & he wants away. We didn’t realise how good he is until he regained fitness after his return from his doomed day trip to Turin this time year. (as the guy who sits beside me said: ” if he swapped Countries then he’ll swap Clubs in a heartbeat!!”)
TRADITIONALIST88 on 30TH AUGUST 2017 12:04 PM
That caveat`s a brammer .
:-)
I ( as you know ) was using the word ” gospel ” in the Glesga sense……
………rather than the Liturgical sense.
Welcome back Paddy,
HH
ps we CANNOT let Jozo go. he is our only half decent CH. We woulkd be destroyed in CL and be vulnerable in Scotland
I do not think Mikel is an effective option for Centre Half,although tall he has no physical presence and not great in the air for someone his height.
BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS on 30TH AUGUST 2017 12:06 PM
Wee Bobby ………….an average player till Jock took him in hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4vYNaRqSKQ
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 30th August 2017 12:13 pm
If its gospel in Glesga then its undisputable :)
HH
RON67 on 30TH AUGUST 2017 11:43 AM
!!BADA BING!! on 30TH AUGUST 2017 11:41 AM
Ron67- Denayer won YPOTY with us….
that was then , this is now
Ach well, all washed up at 22…
The Green Jedi 12.13.
Bang on the button, that’s the problem for this window, can we keep Jozo.
There is also Eric who clearly knows Celtic were happy to let him go and had hinted that he wasn’t entirely happy anyway.
I would be delighted if the window closed and we still had our centre backs, had added another centre back and a striker on loan.
Hail Hail
Eidur Gudjonssen and Georgi Kinkladze are on same private flight to Glasgow
In the case of Odsonne Edouard in particular, if we’ve been tracking this boys for a while, one goal in 17 appearances, 12 from the bench on loan last season, we should have tied it up a long time ago.
Would strike me as a panic signing at this stage.
Denayer on a permanent deal is a great signing, a loan deal is storing up a whole lot of problems for next summer.
So we get financially outmuscled in the player marketplace by teams like Manchester City. We then pay through the nose to try out, and develop their players for them in a real life football environment.
Is this where we want to be?
Fag packet maths coming up, just to make the point. Assuming the top four leagues teams’ all buy two players who are the best prospects, for every position. That means the top 1760 or so prospects are with these leagues, (2 players x 11 positions x 20 teams x 4 leagues) and therefore out of our financial reach. So look in the range of prospects within the1760 to 2000 range. With good coaching, and a better playing regime. (i.e. Playing proper competitive games rather than EPL youth football) it should be possible to improve these players, and remain competitive within the European arena.
At least they would be our players.
HH
Robinbhoy.
I wouldn’t necessary say panic. Circumstances have conspire against us, Brendan was,happy with 2 main strikers. However Moussa won’t be match fit for a while and Griff is still carrying a little knock, Aitchison not ready yet, so in the short term we need a 3rd striker, so a loan deal seems fine to me.
Hail Hail
TRADITIONALIST88 on 30TH AUGUST 2017 12:19 PM
macjay1 for Neil Lennon on 30th August 2017 12:13 pm
If its gospel in Glesga then its undisputable :)
HH
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Mmmmm
You think ?
:-)
Great banter , pal.
JC2@12:08
Commentators would have a field day with that signing!
“Another potshot from Odsonne”
“A bullet header from the young marksman!”
“He’s got the opposition ‘keeper in his sights again”.
“Edouarde giving it to this defence with both barrels!”
This young player Odsonne belongs to PSG…..Right ?
Why would they loan him to Celtic and then allow him to play against them in CL ?
Maybe its time to send Caixhnia to N.Korea….after 5 minutes or so of Pedros patter, Kim Yueng would be too feckin demented to bomb anywhere ?
HH
As someone who doesn’t really like us signing players on loan, the rumoured Eduardo loan deal does make sense. We have two top quality strikers for a team that generally plays one up front and through the middle. In this scenario a good up and coming striker from development team should be the 3rd pick but we don’t have one. We have a 17 year old who isn’t ready yet so signing Eduardo on a season’s loan, allowing Aitchison to go out on loan to get experience, ticks the boxes. He may even turn out to be a start and signs permanently ;-)
BEATBHOY on 30TH AUGUST 2017 12:30 PM
JC2@12:08
Commentators would have a field day with that signing!
“Another potshot from Odsonne”
“A bullet header from the young marksman!”
“He’s got the opposition ‘keeper in his sights again”.
“Edouarde giving it to this defence with both barrels!”
…………………………..
How about ” Odsonne RIFLES it home” !
” Odsonne pulled the trigger and the ball hit the Huns net” !
HH
!!BADA BING!! on 30TH AUGUST 2017 11:41 AM
Ron67- Denayer won YPOTY with us….
that was then , this is now
Ach well, all washed up at 22…
….now if only he could get a haircut and take all that weight from his shoulders maybe be able jump higher.
No doubt Odsonne would be the BUTT of many jokes if he failed to FIRE, and then Celtic would have to take STOCK of the situation, and then maybe give him the BULLET ?
I’ll get ma jaicket.
HH
And, of course, “Scythed down by Wallace from behind well inside the box, and just as he was about to pull the trigger too, but play on signalled by referee Thomson”.
Oh, sorry, BJ, you’ve used the ‘trigger’ one!
As long as we keep his career on an upward trajectory, he’d come.
Let’s be honest…the park the bus mentality and the offensive power means SPFL could be won now with what we’ve got – Nir, Ajer and a converted Bitton at the back.
The behind the sofa games in Paris and Munich require a team defensive unit of much greater capability – no converting Lustig, retaining Jozo, getting Boyata back to fitness (and we’ve missed his scoring from crosses) and saying goodbye to Erik (who I like but has gone off the boil).
More important is a defensive shield in front of them that has N’Cham, last year’s Brown and the imperious (imho) Eboue to keep possession and harry to death.
Let Paddy, Scott and one of Griff or Moussa nick one on the break.
Get Kouassi fit….
BIGJ
I think you should FIRE yer scriptwriter (!)
BMCUW
Aw, c’mon, be fair, he’s easily lead!