I was a bit surprised so few first team players participated in the opening preseason friendly against Pinkafeld yesterday. We are in Champions League qualification action in 12 days and there are only two friendlies between now and then: against Wiener SC in Saturday and St Gallen on Tuesday. There is a lot of work to do in those two games. Lincoln Red Imps impact on our collective memories is still fresh, I hope the same is true of Neil Lennon, who was freshly installed at Hibernian at the time. Football bites you in the bum if you are not ready, as Neil’s fellow-Irishman, Brendan Rodgers will attest.
Our Champions League opponents, Sarajevo, were also in action yesterday, losing 2-0 to Slovacko, who finished seventh on the Czech top flight last season. Results count for nothing in these games, which are all about fitness, but you would rather see an opponent struggle to score and keep clean sheets than to prosper.
There is a very good chance we will add at least Christopher Jullien to the squad before facing Sarajevo, I’m not convinced we will add any more in the coming days, not that we could expect a new arrival to go straight into action so soon.
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Sorry, Gene, I hadn`t realised you were joking.
JJ
DBHOY on 27TH JUNE 2019 3:08 PM
Jeezo. You only have to joke about criticising PL on here and the wagons start circling.
Only joking about MC height?
Dbhoy
I don’t appreciate the manner with which you refer to wagons, and your silence on other forms of unpowered wheeled transport is quite revealing.
This deal seemed difficult from the very beginning. Sometimes, some things are not meant to be. Motherwell leaked details and we made statements. It was rumoured that his father wanted him to go to England and didn’t want him to sign for Celtic. The agent was difficult to deal with. No big pay day for him now. Many of us disappointed at not getting the chance to see young Turnbull wearing the Hoops while playing on the park. Motherwell still in debt to their former owner. Sadly, a young boy back at square one, but now facing an operation with a lengthy spell on the sidelines, now with a question mark over his future. I’m glad we’ve walked away from it at this time. I want Celtic to sign players who are ready to play if required. I hope that everything works out for David Turnbull and that he gets a good move in the future.
I remember when Jock Stein was the manager and his approach was that if there were any leaks at all when Celtic wanted to sign a player then Celtic would walk away from the deal. It might be harder to achieve a blanket of silence nowadays because of agents but I think we should do our best to adopt that approach in future.
Bada no joke mate, 1.83M on wiki, I’m not letting him on the list :)
HH
TBB On yer bike pal :)
HH
DBHOY on 27TH JUNE 2019 3:08 PM
Jeezo. You only have to joke about criticising PL on here and the wagons start circling.
HH
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Mate if you’d been on about 2/3 weeks ago there was no joking – toys were being thrown out of prams left, right and centre, some before the window had even opened, over what some seem to see as a birthright that Celtic go out and spend as much money as possible.
Its been rather quiet from the perpetrators since…barely a peep… as it has become clear that serious work is underway to improve the team.
Exciting times ahead.
HH
DBhoy
John Clark
The Belgian who partnered Virgil. Can’t remember his name but probably will as soon as I click on ‘Post Comment’. ?
Willie Miller is 5′ 10″ , great CH. John Clark wasn’t really tall either
Mascherano (5′ 9″) has played a lot at the back for Barca and never put a foot… oh wait, never mind
DBhoy- ?
Dbhoy, Bobby Evans was nae giant, in height that is.
DBhoy
Jason Denayer
Rivaldo Coetzee also failed a medical, where is he now.
David Turnbull will do well to be added to the pantheon of “what could have been” Celtic players along with Shay Given, Seamus Coleman, Andy Robertson, James McCarthy, Brad Friedel
Whatever was wrong with Turnbull’s knee(?) Celtic did exactly what we’d all do after agreeing a price for something – only to find it was sub-standard.
Scrap the contract or get a new contract for a cheaper price to reflect the risk you’d now be taking.
We don’t know if it was Motherwell or Turnbull who rejected the adjusted offer or terms of payment etc.
Probably both.
Motherwell were already talking about how the Turnbull money was going to build their new training facility & how great it was going to be for their club. They almost had this money spent before the lad had even agreed terms never mind had a medical.
They released the initial statement.
They released the Norwich acceptance statement.
Someone tweeted or instagrammmed the photo of the lad in a Celtic strip in the trophy room. It wasn’t a staged photo to the camera. NFL was looking at someone else (Celtic TV) as was Turnbull. Pic was taken by A.N. Other standing to their right. Agent? Family? Shouldn’t be hard for Celtic to work out who it was.
Motherwell’s dreams of a cash injection of 3million have evaporated for now.
As Lennybhoy said though – we may still see this lad in the Hoops .
Happy with how Celtic handled all of this – agent, selling club, media stirring things, EPL offers AND our own fans clamouring for new signings. It would have been too easy to sign the lad just to appease but it does show that we know very little of what is actually going on behind the scenes. Our medical folk were on top of things & our negotiator had his counter offer rejected.
HH
HH
Trad88
Didn’t read the site for a few weeks there. I’ll wait till the end of the window before passing any kind of judgement on our dealings. I do think we should get the deals done ASAP to help bed them in prior to CL qualifiers but that’s becoming more difficult with the extra games that’s been added in the last few seasons.
Hopefully we get the ‘ quality ‘ in that’s been mentioned by Lenny. Huge season ahead.
HH
With regards to Paul’s comments above, I have to agree with him. I thought it was strange that there were so few senior players playing in the game with the Sarajevo game looming on the horizon. It was wonderful to see the young guns put on a great performance but I thought the point of the game would be to take the players that will form the squad for Sarajevo, a step nearer match fitness.
As I’ve said before on here Lenny’s approach to pre-season games often leaves me bewildered but I shouldn’t complain since we won 6-1 with an excellent performance.
DBHOY on 27TH JUNE 2019 3:37 PM
Trad88
Didn’t read the site for a few weeks there. I’ll wait till the end of the window before passing any kind of judgement on our dealings
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Thats all I and a couple of others were asking for a few weeks ago but many were having none of it. As I say, they’re all a bit sheepish now and wishing they’d kept a lid on it for a week at least! :)
HH
THEORIGINALSADIESBHOY on 27TH JUNE 2019 3:39 PM
To be fair, the boys who played internationally: McGregor, Ajer, Ntcham etc shouldn’t be too far off considering its only been a couple weeks!
Would add Willie Miller. Bobby Evans was before my time but played in ‘Hampden in the sun ‘ game, definitely makes the list.
Liked Denayer beside big Virgil but not the same quality as the others mentioned imo.
Anyway, enough from me. Till next time.
HH
Celtic’s official statement about the transfer being off..
“FOLLOWING the announcement today from Motherwell FC that the proposed transfer of David Turnbull from the club to Celtic will no longer take place, Celtic Football Club has released the following statement.
‘It is unfortunate that we were not able to proceed with the transfer of David to Celtic, having agreed a significant fee with Motherwell and reaching agreement with the player.
‘It is regrettable that David will be out of action for a considerable length of time and, clearly, these circumstances are totally outwith the club’s control. We did everything we could to find a solution.
‘We would like to thank David and his representatives for the professionalism they have shown throughout. We also thank Motherwell FC for the way they have handled this process.
‘We wish David all the very best with the operation and every success for the future.’”
Seems to me this goes out of it’s way to keep well onside with Motherwell, the agaent and DT himslef.
TRADITIONALIST88 on 27TH JUNE 2019 3:21 PM
What serious work is going on, please enlighten us so we don’t start wetting our panties and throwing our toys out of the pram ?
Rumours in the media, that’s all that I can see happening, the French boy will be welcome as a replacement for a couple of decent CB’s, that’s it apart from talk of prospects, Oh and the talk of selling our top assets, is that what excites you.
If small CB’s is the way forward…………………..
Why don’t you see any 5 foot 3″ center-backs
Askingforafriend
BIG JOE on 27TH JUNE 2019 4:06 PM
Look down and you might see em!
FATHER JACK on 27TH JUNE 2019 4:03 PM
What serious work is going on, please enlighten us so we don’t start wetting our panties and throwing our toys out of the pram ?
____
Julien flying in for a medical. Luca Connell visiting Celtic Park today. Rekeem Harper has already done that.
Neil Lennon travelling to Birmingham and Paris (at least) to watch players.
Add all that to Turnbull.
Don’t criticise the club for selling off top assets until they do so. Success means people will want your players.
Wiener SC
hehe
JoBo ……………………………………..
We are departing for Ibiza in the morning mate, so maybe next time
Big Joe
Jammy Bassa
GORDYBHOY64 on 27TH JUNE 2019 2:00 PM
Already out there, medical planned.
GEEBEE1978 on 27TH JUNE 2019 2:03 PM
I believe we will go back for Turnbull next year.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
To be honest Motherwell were never a club i held any high regard over, they’re probably the second on my list of least favourite clubs, after the Auchenhowie Lepar Colony lot (The deid team).
They were the ones who couldn’t hold their wheesht, and unprofessionally blabbed to the media about Turnbull.
Their unsportsmanship behaviour at CP this season when we put the ball out of play to allow RC to receive treatment, and instead of giving us the ball back ran up the pitch and scored, like rats going up a drainpipe, it doesn’t wash what their players and managers said after the goal, (we didn’t know what to do !!) Yeah sure.. kids in schools are taught to return the ball, it’s called sportsmanship.
I just think the whole club lack any professionalism and honesty.
HH
I’m one of the eternal critics as everyone knows, but for anyone to be blaming us for this … it’s barking I’m afraid. The club could not do other than it has, and our handling of this issue from the minute we opened talks to the second the deal collapsed was right on the money.
Yes, even the initial statement saying “take it or leave it.”
Yeah, no signings so far. But Turnbull was one that would already have been done but for factors outwith our control and the French lad is on his way, although I won’t get too excited until I see him in the hoops and not, as was the case here, in a still photo with no announcement.
So but for an injury to this kid we’d be on the verge of having spent £11.5 million in a week. Both excellent signings, both of which would have added to the team. Harper has already had the VIP treatment and I’m ignoring media speculation that Juventus amongst others are after him. That’s why reports in England say West Brom fancy their chances of keeping him … nobody has a clue what’s really going on there.
The same media people decrying our chances said it was “unthinkable” that the Frenchman would sign; well the “unthinkable” is about to happen. In the meantime, Sevconia is overjoyed because Turnbull might spend the next six months on the sidelines … utter gutter rats, the lot of them.
For the first time since Lennon was announced there are genuine signs of life, signs of bottle, signs of ambition … this is not the time to be looking for negatives.
!!BADA BING!! on 27TH JUNE 2019 3:07 PM
Conroy was about 5 foot 10………….
———————
Having met him a few times, that sounds about right.
What about Fat Pat? Very good playing at sweeper.
I’m skeptical that Celtic need to sign both Harper and Connell.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Harper signs a new deal with WBA
JAMES FORREST on 27TH JUNE 2019 4:45 PM
To paraphrase yourself..
“On the money.”
HH
Why would Celtic sign a player knowing they would have to stump up for surgery and months of rehab? If I wanted to sell my car , I would make sure it was in good running order first . Motherwell are the ones who come out of this smelling of sh…
Anyway , if the boy genuinely saw us as his best next move , he may do so again.
Think Celtic have done Motherwell a fav finding the problem with turnbull HH
Perhaps the greatest save of all time:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-middle-east-48781526/hero-17-year-old-catches-falling-toddler
Jim Goodwin the St Mirren manaer