I watched Wolves boss Manchester United at Old Trafford last night when the parallels with what they are doing and what Celtic are attempting struck me. Six of the Wolves starting line-up and seven of the 11 who finished the game were Portuguese. As is their manager, while a seventh starter is a Portuguese-speaking Brazilian.
Wolves Chinese owners decided there was no value in the UK market and invested in building connections with Portuguese agents and clubs. As a consequence, they know this market better than any other, perhaps better than some of the top clubs in Portugal, who field fewer Portuguese nationals.
Paul Lambert was their last non-Portuguese manager. He was replaced in May 2017 by Nuno Espirito Santo, who won promotion at the first attempt and was enticed to Tottenham last summer. His stay at Spurs was short and unsuccessful – Spurs did not have deep knowledge of a value market he could exploit.
Wolves went straight back to Portugal and appointed Bruno Lage, sacked a year earlier by Benfica after one of the worst runs of results in modern history. A failure at Benfica, Lage took to the EPL with apparent ease.
Back in 2014 we discussed our prospects after recruiting Ronny Deila from the value-looking market in Norway. Ronny took a raft of Norwegian backroom staff with him, but I remember us worrying that the status of Norway in the Uefa coefficient table was well below that of Scotland. We subsequently recruited Kristoffer Ajer but Norway was not sufficiently fertile to seed in Scotland.
What has happened in this transfer window is different. Already we have signed three peak-age Japanese players to augment Kyogo Furuhashi and Ange Postecoglou, recruited from Japan.
Portugal and Japan are quite different. For a start, Portugal is scouted significantly more, it is a market known to every club in Europe with a transfer spend. Exports command a premium. It should be more difficult to carve a successful niche in Portugal than in Japan.
Japan is a significantly cheaper market, our four recruits this season cost less than £10m. More than half of that money was spent on Kyogo, so I would caution against jumping to conclusions about how effective Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate and Yosuke Ideguchi will be before they settle into life here. Cheap does not guarantee value.
Deep knowledge of a market is needed to find any sustainable value. If we want to over-perform, it seems unlikely that we will be able to do so to any significant degree but speaking to the same agents as everyone else. Wolves picked a market and went all in, as a consequence, they are performing at a 50 year high.
Half a season after recruiting Ange Postecoglou, we have gone all in on the Japanese market. There will be a tangible Japanese culture at Lennoxtown, a host of Japanese clubs and agents have done business with us and more will hopefully follow. Celtic have gained a degree of deep knowledge of the Japanese market. As I said, these are early days, but there is much to be hopeful about.
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i am with the other person who said “if really that good he would have been approached by villa”.
Wolves are currently a mid table side. They only returned to the top League in 2016, They haven’t been a top team since 1950’s,
Not like Celtic at all
Everton are one of the worst examples in wasting money on transfers in England,
To be fair there has been a fair amount of hype about Patterson in England for a while and not just the usual ex-Sevvies. He’s seen as someone with lots of potential and lots of talent.
It wasn’t a huge surprise that he moved where he did when he did, although the price is total made up bollox.
TURKEYBHOY on 4TH JANUARY 2022 7:55 PM
What was the name of the wonderkid who went to Brentford for 1 million.Never been heard of since.Couple of years ago.Was being touted as a genius.Think they needed the can pronto.
Definitely Lewis MacLeod. Last heard of last season at Plymouth Argyle, career badly blighted by injury, spent more time on the treatment table than the pitch.
JC2,
Cheers mate.Was doing my head in.Hardly played and never heard of him again.Lewis Mc Cloud.
Joe Cindy,
Thanks mate.
,
Please Celtic/Ange sign CCV permanantly.The guys been excellent.great defender
Hail Hail Brothers
My last comment on Patterson – The Times northern football correspondent says the fee was £11million inclusive of add ons. I suspect they’ll need to sell again this window.
An Dun
Aye, probably £3m if Everton win the treble and another £3m if they win the CL.
So, £5m it is then!
:-)
You can hear the ringfence going around Poundland from here…..Ashley for one…
Whatever the price,you have to think the buying of Paterson is a real error by Everton.Not experienced enough to help them get out of their rut.Its a ridiculous decision.
Word is Gerrrrrrarrrrd might be in for Aribo.Has to be another 25 million .
Bada,
Taking some time this SD case.The total bill,I mean.
TB- i think the money owed is being announced this month, hopefully with costs….
Blog broke?
Up in the early hours again watching the Ashes. I have to say, cricket commentators are so much better than football commentators. Much more entertaining and certainly more erudite. I could listen to David Gower all day, or in this case, all night.
Come on England. Make a contest of it.
Feckin rain
I don’t know what to make of that article paul, please tell.me you are not alluding to the possibility of Wolves hijacking our move for Jota?
PAULOANTONY
I can absolutely guarantee you Paul didn’t mean that.
Doesn’t mean it won’t happen.
Why do we care what that lot are doing across the city ?
Seriously ??
Theyve just sold imo a decent player who I’d rather WASNT at here in Scotland if Thier captain gets injured or loses form.
Their director of football is experienced and now paying dividends.
However
If WE win the league this season it will set them back massively if not catastrophically.
Give Ange the tools he wants/needs and I’m positive (bar any help from the referees) that he WILL deliver
I hope not Tom.
A few high profile currants alluding to the possibility yesterday on twitter (I know I know)
But I would be surprised if there aren’t others not looking to possibly hijack the move with his form pre injury)
Many managers could be aware such as the Portuguese contingent at wolves or a slippy at villa
Hooe 2+2 = 6
Morning Celts
:-)
HH
Good morning all from a dark and cold Garngad
House to myself as everyone returns to the workplace today. Yeeha
12 days to we see our beloved hoops again :(
D :)
Happy New Year to you too AnT and to all the good Tims on CQN.
Over the years I’ve learned to keep away from CQN when there are no games on so have been away since before New Year.
Looking forward to seeing our new signings and whether the board will help Ange with further rebuild of the squad in this window, I’ll be disappointed if our window is complete already.
All the best for 2022 all, 2021 was pretty shit for a number of reasons I have an opTIMistic approach and feeling for 2022!!
Back to work today :-(
Just watched a YouTube video of Sergei semper , a centre half and former teammate of Kyogi , definitely one for the wish list first class .
Does anyone think crowds will be allowed in on the 17th?
Not looking likely atm Jim.
Agreed,A. Golf is still available, though, so off to there I go :-)
Cheerio for now.
jimtim on 5th January 2022 9:37 am
Do you mean Sergi Samper?
I assume we will get pass To Paradise on 17th; there is a section on the site that says ‘closed doors OR reduced capacity due to the Covid’
PS
Worth noting that when i changed my Premier Inn room from 2 Jan to 2 Feb, when the sevco game moved, there was no charge. Quite impressed by that as the room was cheap as chips and had no cancellation allowed at that point
Ryanair cost me another €100 but I did completely change the flight times to suit and it would have been €180 to go in externally (plus it was really easy onlne)
Tis good news story was brought to you by the letters C-F-C and the number 67
Hot Smoked and wider blog I think we will be very lucky to see full crowds before April.
Only my opinion of course just got a gut feeling.
Ps I see the French have found a new variant of covid….
D :)
Sorry strain not variant.
D :)
Really don’t see any reason why fans can’t be allowed into an outdoor venue.
When darts had full capacity indoors.
The darts is fine, the new science shows being dressed up as a hotdog and drinking ten pints of lager gives you immunity from every virus known to man
Hearing whispers that we’re exploring playing the dobbers at St James Park or Old Trafford.
TBH, more than a few of us were surprised that we got £11M for Frimpong as well.
He has done well, though.
CELTIC40ME
😄😄😄
Interesting article wrt UEFA FFP limits and transfer wriggle room for EPL clubs in January.
The comments wrt Everton make you wonder how much of the Patterson money is actually “jam tomorrow” for Sevco rather than cash today.
Everton dont have a lot of saleable assets in current squad – Richarlison is probably the only player who they could transfer out to raise significant money.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/january-transfer-window-club-spending-25852545