Steven Fletcher has his own place in Celtic folklore. We bid for him in January 2009, the player made a public plea to Hibs to allow the deal to happen, but Rod Petrie rejected the approach. Fletcher would go to Burnley at the end of that season for a deal worth around £4m, which seemed eye-watering at the time for a striker who scored 11 goals the previous 12 months.
As Celtic ran out of steam in the spring of 2009 attention turned to what might have been had Fletcher signed. He was the one that got away. The whats, whys and maybes of that time are irrelevant now, but in short, Celtic didn’t value Fletcher at £4m and Petrie reckoned he could get that kind of money in England if he waited.
Before selling to Burnley he didn’t even put the customary call out to Celtic to entice a higher bid. Petrie wanted Hibs to be known as a team who could produce players for the English Premier League – a Hamilton Accies-Lite, if you like. It’s a legitimate strategy.
The player is 28-years-old and now free of the ankle injury which plagued him for over a year. He’s on an astronomical basic wage at Sunderland, who paid north of £10m for his services. Few Scottish footballers will have higher career earnings than him, but that contract ends in June. This season has brought 4 goals from 11 starts for a Sunderland team who sit in a relegation position.
The injury profile makes him a possibility for Celtic. Without it, as a free agent, he would remain in the English Premier League next season (whether Sunderland do or not). His agent will no doubt be shopping him around right now, as will Sunderland, who at the moment will be asking for a consideration to be paid to release him this month.
We must have signed 20 strikers since January 2009, very few as good as Steven Fletcher. I’d take him in a heartbeat.
I’m pleased Anthony Stokes (16 months younger than Fletcher) has a choice of clubs wanting to loan him this month. All three: Dundee United, Inverness and Hibs, would be good places for him. United are a better team than their abysmal points tally indicates, but they are desperately short of strikers. Stokes could transform them. Hibs and Inverness are both clubs looking purposefully towards the second half of the season.
Charity Q&A Night, Carfin
I’m on the (otherwise excellent) Q&A panel at the Xavier Centre, Carfin, on Saturday 30 January alongside two Libson Lions – John Clark and Bertie Auld, Celtic author and sports academic – Dr Joe Bradley, and Fifa referee – Willie Collum.
The purpose of the night is to raise funds for Lanarkshire Cancer Care Trust and the Young Adult Ministry. Tickets will be scarce, so if you’d like to attend, call Mick on 07827 975271 soon.
You know when you look at a line-up and just know it’s going to be a great night…..
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Philbhoy
Pennington would be loan to buy according to KDS, not sure about the rest
Weefra
Ive got a Milbro catapult there if its any good to you:)
HH
the Rangers on TV is not unexpected it is another way for the establishment to support them financially. This in my opinion is just more cheating no other club in Scotland gets this type of help.Scottish football is in no way a level playing field. H.H.
Honestly,would James Forrest be missed.?
FANANDPATRIOT
The young lassies might miss JF when he does his wee hair flick thing.
But…thats about it.
Somebody should have coached that lad properly.
HH
Foxes ? .
No shortage of foxes -way down south . Haven’t lost a chicken , a duck , a rabbit ,a kid , a lamb or a piglet to a fox in 15 years . The reason — 2 Pitbulls and 2 mad mental Dachshunds . I couldn’t shoot a fox for behaving like a fox but it’s a moot point since I don’t have a gun . The red haired green eyed woman from Padova has a pistol but she couldn’t kill a fox either . A human who tried to steal her Prada footwear or her Red Bird 45s would end up with more holes than a collander .
A nice ,sunny 18 degrees -way down south
WEEFRATHETIM on 15TH JANUARY 2016 11:55 AM
I wouldn’t have thought that clay pigeon shooting would have deterred foxes, but I could be wrong. If you ask about you might find a local shooter who would go out lamping after your fox, which is the most effective way to get rid of them,though I appreciate you might not be inclined to do that.
The trouble is if you get rid of one fox you’re just freeing up a territory for another fox to fill.
Personally I’d reintroduce lynx, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, at least not where you are.
I think the court wifi has broke down :(
could James Forrest protect poultry
Weefra
Fra….About two miles out from yours.
Put up a perimeter of sevco strips.
They foxes will never come back:)
HH
Sevco set to cash in on Waghorn Pen.
TONYDONNELLY67 on 15TH JANUARY 2016 12:10 PM
I think the court wifi has broke down :(
He’s not allowed to tweet from the court on this occasion.
He has to wait till the decision is announced and then go outside to tweet.
Ahhhhhhh, that’s right a forgot that.
Another new rule when thems involved, why am a no surprised?
TD67
Thems will go into court smiling.
The Judge will award them 6 Billion quid in damages.
And in three years, they will win the Champions League.
Dont say i never warned you:)
HH
TONYDONNELLY67 on 15TH JANUARY 2016 12:18 PM
Another new rule when thems involved, why am a no surprised?
###
I can see where the Sheriff is coming from on this, given the number of bams and nutjobs hanging about Glasgow Sheriff Court on any particular day.
And that’s just the lawyers.
The green man
You been sniffing that Lidl bag? :)
Still a strange rule but, only for thems, where is the case being heard Embra?
new article posted.
Its a Travelling Circus this sevco case.
Visiting all the big cities, so all the huns can play the victim.
Poor sectarian bigots, its a crying shame.
Dont you know that they are the victims in all this:)
HH
I think it was TheClumpany who correctly predicted the daily rag headline about the Ibrox club not going to be held to ransom and all that. Sure enough, there it is. Well done that man.
I can’t remember which rag it’s in, but does the writer not stop to wonder who in control of their faculties would demand a ransom from somebody skint and unable to borrow even from their own followers?
Excuse me. Sometimes it takes me a minute or two to catch up. Of course it was the new Ibrox club’s manager who was ranting about not being held to ransom.
The question about who’d be so daft should have been asked of him.