You will remember we track the number of appearances young players make before they sign for Celtic. We have a sweet spot of around 60 games (van Dijk: 62, Wanyama: 51, Dembele: 56).
It typically takes this number of games before a prospect will raise his profile enough to come to our attention, and for subsequent scouting to take place. Consider the process. Before recommending a player to Celtic, one of their in-country scouts will have to see him perform on a number of occasions and tested at a level comparable to the challenges faced by Celtic.
Alternatively, agents will need to produce DVDs to entice some interest. It takes time to differentiate a Kieran Tierney from a one season wonder.
Leave it later, say until around 100 games have been played, and a van Dijk is likely to flicker on radars in England or Germany. Celtic’s chances of acquiring the player would be considerably diminished, as even one season wonders can fetch £8m when an EPL club shows interest. Out of Celtic’s reach, but often still rubbish.
Kouassi Eboue breaks our guidelines. The teenager has made a starting line-up on 16 occasions in senior football plus three as a sub. He was red carded once and subbed off four times, so he’s only played 11 full games. 11 games is not a lot to base a £3m purchase on.
On the plus side, the quality of many of those games is reassuring. Five of his 90 minutes came in the Europa League against Salzburg, Nice and Schalke, so Celtic will have had the chance to see him perform against decent European sides – as an 18-year-old.
There are things I don’t know about this deal, where the recommendation came from being the most significant. I don’t recognise his agent, so not surprisingly it appears we’ve reached beyond the pools we were fishing in under Ronny and Neil. Kouassi also appears to be the agent’s most/only valuable asset. As such, I doubt the initiation came from the agent, or if the player’s profile was raised with anyone outside Russia before Celtic had the preliminaries signed.
Is a season in the Europa League the new sweet spot for a Celtic prospect? Stay tuned.
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ya dancer
shoot…………
hits the post……………
Young Rubicon the Third and I were speculating on the earliest date we may win the league.
If one assumes the Aberdeen and Sevco should win all of their remaining fixtures (18 and 17 matches respectively) the maximum points total they can reach is 91 points.
Should we win our next 11 matches we will reach the same total with a better goal difference and we’ll be champions.
This assumes our two rivals keep winning too. Anyhow, in this unlikely event, we’d win the league on Wednesday, April 5th at home to Partick Thistle, evening kick off.
Should they both drop points and we don’t, the celebrations will be earlier than April 5th.
Of course, we are likely to drop the occasional point so that would add to the variables.
Another way we looked at it was to apply a points total to Aberdeen and Sevco based on their performance to date. So far this season they have both averaged 1.85 points per game.
If this rate continued for the rest of the season they would both accumulate 71 points.
(As they need to play each other twice they both can’t hit the total)
In this event, we’d only need to win another 13 points to be champions.
However, we can’t be sure of this as the above calculation is spread over the whole season, i.e.
they could exceed their average in the latter part of the season.
So, no firm prediction from us but we had fun doing it!
Tap ten will do me HH
The green man
Finally got to meet your nephew on Tuesday evening, seems we share the same Christian name and are as mad as each other
On the plus side ? ☘️☘️
Paul 67
I would rather Eboue is being signed with a view to a long term replacement for Broonie than a punt on a 2 year project to be auctioned to the EPL if successful.
Good Afternoon!
Have you seen that large number of “random” stories about Paul le Guen in the press? It’s all very strange and I decided to take the p*ss out of it…
https://theclumpany.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/the-essay-writing-competition/
BT
Ha Ha….now you know how mad our tribe are:)
He just won ‘Poser of the Year’ at his works do.
He was up seeing me at Christmas….about 7 feet tall now.
Mad as….but good hearted bhoy.
HH
BT
Me and the mad yin were at Motherwell….he must have been about 12.
He says to me, watching the team warm up….’Id love to get one of those match balls’
Says me…’Next time the ball flies over, grab it and i will through my coat over it’
Big Sami smacks one over the bar into terracing….bold yin does a full length dive and saves it, i throw my coat over it.
Big Sami waits for the ball to get chucked back…and waits…and waits:)
Bold yin was over the moon….we got it signed by the team later.
Had to do my Uncle bit:)
HH
BT
Me and the mad yin were at Motherwell….he must have been about 12.
He says to me, watching the team warm up….’Id love to get one of those match balls’
Says me…’Next time the ball flies over, grab it and i will throw my coat over it’
Big Sami smacks one over the bar into terracing….bold yin does a full length dive and saves it, i throw my coat over it.
Big Sami waits for the ball to get chucked back…and waits…and waits:)
Bold yin was over the moon….we got it signed by the team later.
Had to do my Uncle bit:)
HH
tap ten
Sorry
Sorry bout the double post
Does the apparent signing of Eboue mean that Darlington Nagbe (?) is no longer a likely signing?
I thought the Darlington nagbe signing was was dead before Christmas?
“It takes time to differentiate a Kieran Tierney from a one season wonder.”
Quizzical eyebrow raise gif.
How many game does the Blue Cafu need to play until he comes
under our 60 game radar
Or Barry Magic(for 30 mins) McKay
The break is ideal to get some contracts extended, Lustig, Gordon,Armstrong, possibly Izzy ,McGregor.Work out who is surplus and move them on, Boyata, Ciftci, for starters…
Burghbhoy on 5th January 2017 12:24 pm
Paul 67
I would rather Eboue is being signed with a view to a long term replacement for Broonie than a punt on a 2 year project to be auctioned to the EPL if successful.
———
That was my thinking. Although initially he might be used as a specialist DM for Europe in a 4-3-3.
Certainly good forward planning from someone!
The Celtic sweet spot doesn’t shrink to fit inferior players.
Did anyone watch the programme on BT last night about how Notts Forrest won the European Cup?
Clough/Taylor were one helluva partnership.
I think Martin O’Neill has some of Clough’s persona about him. Unpredictable, fiery and a great Manager.
That achievement from Forrest must be the 2nd greatest in European cup history!
HH
BURGHBHOY on 5TH JANUARY 2017 2:33 PM
Did anyone watch the programme on BT last night about how Notts Forrest won the European Cup?
Clough/Taylor were one helluva partnership.
I think Martin O’Neill has some of Clough’s persona about him. Unpredictable, fiery and a great Manager.
That achievement from Forrest must be the 2nd greatest in European cup history!
HH
******
It was a great achievement for Forest to do the two in a row and Clough/Taylor were a great partnership ; Brian the motivator and Peter the tactics man.
What their wins did lack, though, was class and entertainment.
They were probably the two most boring finals in European history.
It is no surprise that they are the almost forgotten finals.
ThomTheTim
Most boring final was sometime in 90’s at Wembley. I think Barca v some other team I canny mind. Dullest dross I ever watched.
MWD
Sampdoria it was
MWD
The Green Man says SACK THE Board on 5th January 2017 12:37 pm
========================================
:))
I am a very happy,contented Tim.
Henry Lansbury.?A hero to all my Forest mates.Story he was off to Derby.Heart attacks all over East Midlands.
What you would call a beautiful footballer.In a manly way,of course.Cant see him going to us.Where would he play?.
Big Victor never broke sweat against Chelsea last night.Hopefully Eboue is a copy.
Barca v Steau wasn’t great either
MWD
Me and a pal were at that Barca Sampdoria game in 92. It was an ok match – certainly much better than the 0-0s of AC Milan Juve in 2003 or Red Stars Marseilles in 91.
Peter Taylor also had a great eye for a player.
Garry Birtles went from Long Eaton to playing in the EC final in 18 months or so.
Catching up from earlier about John James.
The bit I don’t get is, he was a regular poster on Bill McMurdos blog.
When McMurdo stopped his blog John James set his own one up. McMurdo used to comment on it and it was obvious that he knew exactly who John James was/is. McMurdo then fell out with John James because he was becoming, in his eyes, anti Rangers. If John James wasn’t/ isn’t a Rangers fan why hasn’t McMurdo called him out, also Jack Irvine posts on it again why?
I fully accept that John James, in his blogs would not appear to be a Rangers fan but given what I have just posted, my opinion is it doesn’t add up, something smells.
My guess, John James was a patsy for McMurdo and his crew who are well known for their extreme dislike of King, then somewhere along the way JohnJames decided to go rogue. Only a theory, so I could be spectacularly wrong.
The Eboue signing highlights an opportunity and a rare area of advantage over English clubs. Part of the criteria for gaining a work visa is that you have to demonstrate the player will enhance the game.
Now enhancing the EPL is a challenging business. That league is choc full of Internationals and no small number of world class players. 19 – 22 year olds who haven’t played huge numbers of games won’t get a work visa in England.
Thats what happened with Wanyama , who then proves his bona fides at Celtic and qualifies for a work visa for England.
Celtic are in a fantastic position to exploit this opportunity. Signing for Celtic is just about the best opportunity for talented Non EU players in their late teens early 20’s. I’d expect to see more of this type of signing
RUBICON on 5TH JANUARY 2017 12:16 PM
Far too much time on your hands !!
Give the complexity of the variables I assume Rubicon the third did the arithmetic
Hope all good
67ECW
Just having a look at Europa League Group I, Krasnador, Red Bull Salzburg, Schalke and Nice. Schalke topped the group with Krasnador coming 2nd ahead of Red Bull and high flying French team Nice. The final group match was in Nice, Nice won 2-1. Eboue played the full match. I suspect Brendan was in attendance that night and saw enough to do the deal .
Lansbury to Celtic isnt big news
was it not a snippet from one of CQN’s men in the know, i dont think it was Lennybhoy however.
all this slagging off of le guen – is barry heading back to ibrox ?
The green man
Aye, he did say you are bonkers, sorry for late reply. 1st day back after 2 weeks so chop chop
KTF
Policies need to be published.
Directives need responded to.
Guidelines??? Who cares
London Evening Standard 4:15pm…
West Ham have lodged a £20million bid for Celtic striker Moussa Dembele.