One of the things you hope for when a player leaves for a richer league is that they perform well. It reflects on whatever value you will get the next time someone leaves. Joe Ledley has gotten off to a flier with Crystal Palace, although there is still a long way to go there, but our two big summer sales are finding it tough.
Gary Hooper hadn’t scored in his last nine starts for Norwich. His season tally stands at five league goals and two assists, which is still four goals more than Ricky van Wolfswinkel, who cost more than twice Hooper’s price but has scored only once in the league. Norwich other two strikers have yet to get off the blocks.
Bizarrely, Norwich are flooded with expensive strikers but their fans will bemoan the fact that they don’t have a goal-scorer, which Hooper was at Celtic and van Wolfswinkel was at Utrecht, where he scored a hat-trick against Celtic, and at Sporting. There is a good chance they will be relegated as a consequence, which will probably have them back on the hunt for a Leigh Griffiths-type striker.
Gary had his dips in form at Celtic, which included a meagre last four months of his final season, Cup Final apart, but Victor Wanyama is one of the best central midfielders we have seen at Celtic in a considerable time. He was a solid performer for Southampton before injury side-lined him for two months. Now back, he has a seat alongside Jos Hooiveld on the bench, due to the form of Jack Cork, one of Southampton’s many current stars.
Hooper and Wanyama were among the stars of the Celtic team last season but I suspect their new clubs’ fans are wondering what all the fuss is about. Form is fickle. It’s hard to tell when a career is about to turn all Liam Miller on a bright young prospect (and let’s be honest, Miller was every bit as lauded here as Hooper or Wanyama), or what consequences the new club, the move, or other distractions are having on performance.
There are also a couple of ex-Celtic goalkeepers doing a star turn in the FA Premier League, David Marshall at Cardiff and Artur Boruc at Southampon. After dazzling in his early months Marshall sipped well down the pecking order at Celtic, who eventually offloaded him. He was replaced as first choice by Boruc, who could claim to be the top rated keeper in Europe 8 years ago but completely lost ‘it’, before finding it again, recently.
My prediction is that Hooper, Wanyama, Balde, Boerrigter and Pukki will not fulfil their potential at their current clubs, although I considered Wanyama’s place on the list for a while. This does not make them bad players, ‘it’ just doesn’t always happen when it should. By contrast, some players look born to play for Celtic, including Kris Commons, who does not fit the profile of top-flight English clubs but is a rare gem in the Champions League for Celtic.
Really enjoyed reading the questions to and comments about Tommy Gemmell yesterday, as did Tommy, who spent the afternoon reading CQN and was “delighted” at the response. He’s not got a login yet but we’ll get him sorted and do a live event on the blog after we have the book out of the way.
I’m attending a meeting next Wednesday with Supporters’ Liaison Officer, John Paul Taylor. Let me know if there are any questions you’d like raised.
If you would like to read the new CQN Magazine, GO HERE to read properly, and for FREE, the graphic below is just a taster.
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robert88
10:44 on 14 February, 2014
The Honest Mistake loves being first
I don’t think the club needs re aligning its the views of some fans that need re aligning to reality.
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I agree.
Some wouldn’t know it if it landed in there porridge in the morning.
Must say I find my toes curling involuntarily whenever the term “West Brit” is uttered on here, generally to disdain Tom English. I find the term reflects an unpleasant intolerance and reflexive dislike for The Other that is incongruous with my experience supporting Celtic.
Relatedly, are those of us in Scotland who have decided to vote No in the referendum to be labelled as North Brits?
Just askin’ like.
MOONBEAMS WD. 1039
Not a problem,buddy. Not for a pro-active board like ours.
Due to their penny-pinching,hoarding actions of late,we have wiped out the accrued losses over the years,losses which we booked against Corporation Tax.
Another few years of losses to write off against tax won’t faze our bean-counters,not one bit.
Indeed,they will congratulate themselves on having squirrelled so much away previously.
Not for one second will it occur to them that their current policies led to the malaise to follow,it will all be our fault.
Malcontents and ingrates who are stuck in past glories. And have the DvDs to prove it.
Timaloy29
I think had Celtic been playing Spurs we would have at least the same crowd.
Most EPL teams have players we would go to watch live.
I am suitably chastised
The Honest Mistake loves being first
Everyone is blaming the board for the dwindling crowds etc, the club is doing everything to keep those people.
The people to blame for dwindling crowds are the fans themselves for not turning up.
All the talk of the board not doing this and that is rubbish and should be dismissed, its obvious why the club isnt talking in public or acting on demands, the club has its own agenda and is rightly sticking to it bollocks to the rest of them, all the demands on here and other places should be dismissed.
THM
I cant help but thinking you deserve each other.
Auldheid,
Okay I apologise I made a mistake.
Let’s not dwell on so many posts on my 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001%
mistake. Even though UEFA clearly dont give two tuppeny sucks about companies and legalities.
Lets proportiantely create as many posts discussing the 99.999999999999999999999%
that seems to be bang on the money.
WHAT ARE THEY HIDING AND WHY ?
the floor is yours
HH
The Battered Bunnet
10:53 on 14 February, 2014
I think when it comes to West Brits our largest shareholder must be one of the disciples.
HH
NegAnon2
Firstly, thanks!
Secondly no, I’m not TD.
I just wish the blog was a happier place. If only we were 21 points behind. Ah, the memories.
THM
you said
” But if this happens at least you can blame the board for your own actions.”
Agree entirely
HH
MWD
Did you read report on the last Open Meeting meeting?
It is on the CST site. It contains Celtic response to the questions from the 1st meeting.
Looks like our recent attendances have been better than the avg attendances in seasons 66-67 and 87-88
http://www.fitbastats.com/celtic/club_records_league_attendance.php
Awe naw.
Who deserves each other?
tnt
Great post and probably sums up how a lot of us feel.
I’m not a season ticket holder now but did get to a few games each season, taking my kid with me.
Tickets, transport, food, a visit to the Superstore, no change out of 50 quid.
The last straw for me was the plod filming my 12 year old daughter and me as we approached the turnstyles. Not for me, ever.
Poor quality signings, plus existing overpaid duds, the managers favourites, failing to turn up week in week out. Poor team selections, poor substitutions, no tactical awareness.
Or am I expecting too much?
The falling attendences this and next season, imo, will be a watershed for the club, one that will, in the not too distant future mean we may find ourselves being a very ordinary team in the very ordinary SPL.
It’s a shame.
Still, I’ve got my memories.
Auldheid
I agree. But is that something board can change? The SPFL is our lot.
I think my point was, that its not to do with a dislike for the board. Manchester United fans still turn up and bankroll the Glazers. The poor attendances at Celtic are not a protest. People would rather go to the pub and watch the English game.
If people cannot be bothered watching Celtic play against the other scottish sides then is there a point in being a supporter? How has that attitude changed in the last 10 years?
BMCUWP
You are probably correct – sadly.
Achhh well. At least the replica huns will be back soon and the old firm fans will come back to help!
I’m just surprised Celtic PLC haven’t offered them a soft loan to give them a helping hand as yet?
MWD
Awe naw.
I know you agree, but that’s probably an issue.
Hh
Auldheid
I go to watch Celtic. I’m not interested in how good the opposition are. I don’t imagine the Geordies went home thinking well at least we got to see a great game tonight after being skelped 4-0 at home.
LB
Fed up Philbhoy..
I understand what you are saying with regards to the filming, however that cant be stopped as harassing as it feels. If it were me in that situation is just simply film them back, they don’t like it and they cant stop you! you have a right to film in public.
MWD.
Walking away next season will do as much damage as a soft loan.
You brainless through and through types who will not murmur a squeak of dissention against our boards overt acceptance of corruption on its own door step and against our past achievements.
HH
Off ooootttt
MOONBEAMS WD
You and I finally agree,and you stick it at the very end of a page?
Crafty sod….
Second anniversary of the huns going into administration,prior to folding. And it’s the Celtic fans weeping and wailing.
Does my nuts in.
Anyone who thinks that the ingrates amongst us are happy to slag off-or even question-Celtic is missing the point.
Which is WHY we are upset at the way the club is going.
Gaun furra pint.
The cold, dark, light-starved months of January and February can see a rise in depressive tendencies.
And, on top of that, you start to read CQN…..
Happy Valentine’s Day to all the lovers having tiffs on here.
No group of fans play down Celtic’s achievements more than Celtic fans.
Quite amusing really.
Bring in the kids.
What utter nonsense.
They are not good enough to be introduced in large numbers.
Utter tosh.
They need to be drip fed at the appropriate moments into the side,then rested.
I actually attend matches ,and want to see the kids introduced and prosper,but it has to be done sensibly.
TT
Top of the morning to you all from a fine sunnyish day in the Kingdom of Fife.
Must give a big up to Sid Gallagher, a Clydebank man who has suffered injustice at the hands of the Masonic cabal that run the law establishment in Scotland.
Sid’s story is a moving one told in a gritty manner. He doesn’t pretend to be an innocent, the opposite in fact he was a drunken thug, a member of a Glasgow gang, but he changed his ways over the years and didn’t do the crime for which he was jailed.
http://www.30612.mrsite.com/USERIMAGES/The%20War%20Baby%20E-pdf.pdf
Worth a read. H.H.
PS. Auldheid, as a successful businessman for 25 years I often saw other companies doing things that didn’t make sense to me (as Celtic are doing now) and asked myself the same question as you are doing now: “why would they do something that harms their profits because they are in it for the money?”.
My questions were usually answered by the SALE signs that went up before the auctioneers arrived.
You presume that our directors are wise businessmen whereas in the past the past this has sometimes been the case, and sometimes not been the case. Half of Fife is at present denuded by a ruthless coal company that extracted all the coal then went bust. Directors included one Brian Wilson of Celtic!
Livibhoy 11.03
I couldn’t agree more.
TT
Has george ,mcgeouch or atajic played yet with their loan clubs ?
The Honest Mistake
Well I ain’t going to finance further a entity that is controlling the club and moving it away from the core values of the club I once supported. Celtic PLC is more interested in ingraciating itself with the powers that be (Police Scotland & politicos) and IMO getting the replica huns back ASAP than they are about the soul of the club. It’s support! While they continue to shaft the support then I will be out. You make your choice and I’ll make mine.
MWD
Aw Naw
I was not looking for an apology I was not being harmed in any way but that one small misunderstanding on your part might later have been thrown back at you later and undermine your point.
Others may have accepted it as fact too so just as well to point it out early doors.
If you want me to speculate on why Celtic act as they do I think the main reason is that they do not trust folk to handle what they say in a balanced manner.
The tone of exchanges hardly encourages trust and when Celtic do make statements they leave themselves open to further attacks.
It is a vicious circle and much of it is because policies are personalised and debate tends to focus on persons rather than the policies.
I think some of the policies need either articulated or reviewed but we are never going to get there as long as individuals feel they are on the defensive because of policies they understand but are held personally responsible for when it is corporate responsibility.
Play the ball not the man metaphorically speaking.
As an example you seem to me to have taken my posts personally and I could respond on a personal basis but that produces more heat than light.
So I chose to ignore what I could interpret as some hostility in your part ( even if you do not mean it, it is the tone your point is delivered in).
It is a matter to me anyway of what works and what does not and something clearly is not working.
As I said before it takes two to tango.
Fin1690. Keep clapping away happily at the dross on show
I don’t get this, my god you have one strange agenda my friend.
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Big Nan
You presume that our directors are wise businessmen whereas in the past the past this has sometimes been the case, and sometimes not been the case. Half of Fife is at present denuded by a ruthless coal company that extracted all the coal then went bust. Directors included one Brian Wilson of Celtic!
Big Nan
The healthy bank balance suggests that in spite of falling crowds the club is in safe hands and unlikely to go under.
I never listen to football phone-ins. I occasionally tune in to others. I did this morning to Radio Scotland. I had to give it up. They were supposed to be discussing the stand taken yesterday by Osbourne, Ball and the Lib Dem chappie (Alexander?). I had to stop. It was a mixture of head in the sand stuff, bluster and name calling. The Independence supporters refused to address the issue, something of vital importance for our future I think. Instead, they seemed to adopt the attitude of the followers of the deid team: we are Scots; we deserve better.
Hi Antipodean – how are you? That top you gave me is my pride and joy (my wife says shes sick of seeing it ::)
MWD
That narrative is tremendously damaging and if it is true then we are screwed.
But what if it is not?
It definitely needs addressing.
SydneyTim
And you keep snydey sniping from afar.
Both will have similar effects on results.
Awenaw.
Garbage. You might have seen me attempting to help out canamalar and auldheid last night in their quest to bring the sfa to task for the corruption.
But hey you just shoot off your big mouth instead of doing something constructive.