Gary Hooper and Celtic strategy

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Sky have reported that Celtic have accepted a £5m bid from QPR for Gary Hooper.  Gary is in the final year of his contract and has declined to sign a new deal which has been no offer for almost a year now.

It will surprise some, perhaps including the player, that an English Premier League club have not made a move, but QPR have the cash to compete with most in the top flight, so the financial rewards for the player will be comparable.

For Celtic the proposition is simple, if the player is not going to extend his stay beyond this season, and an offer matching valuation is received, it is better they know where they stand as early in the transfer window as possible.  We’ll know soon enough if the player wants to move.  As we said about Victor, it’s always hard to lose a good one, but I’ve yet to meet someone who would walk away from a deal north of £50k per week, so fair play to Gary, whatever he decides.

Neil Lennon had never hid his admiration for the player but the Celtic strategy is clear enough.  If Gary decides to move it’s all about finding the right replacement, they days of slavishly watching players run down their contracts are over.

Have you done your thing for 1254125 yet?  The supporters group working with Celtic Charity proposed we get as many as possible signed up to running a 10k, hoping each person can raise £125.  We’ve teamed up with The Great Scottish Run on Sunday 6 October and extended the scope a bit, to include those who don’t quite have the legs for 10k.

On Saturday 5 October, The Great Scottish Run also organise supporting events you can enter and raise your £125:

100m Toddler Dask (0-5 yrs)
1.5k Mini Run (5-8 yrs)
2.5k Junior Run (9-15 yrs)
Family Mile (Adults and children from 3 yrs)

If you are particularly fit, you can enter the Half Marathon on the Sunday.  It is going to be a great family weekend.  If you know a kid who is keen to participate and get involved in 1254125, let them know.

If the legs won’t support you for 10k, you can gingerly make your way along the Family Mile.

To sign up you need to register with The Great Scottish Run first.  Register here if you are participating in the 10k or Half Marathon, and here if you are participating in the Saturday events, then register here with Celtic Charity (scroll down the page until you see Great Scottish Run).

Just over 10 weeks to go, get your application in and get every Celtic fan you know with a pair of trainers to sign up.  I’m doing the 10k, so will be out running tonight…….
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796 Comments

  1. SydneyTim

     

    00:12 on

     

    25 July, 2013

     

     

    You make a valid point about the wasted wages. However we’ve also heard that at least one (Brown I think) has a top salary match clause in his contract, there may be others and additionally some players might also be on a guaranteed percentage of the top salary ( a lot of ifs and buts there I know).

     

     

    What I’m getting at is that offering £30k/week to one player may see and additional rise of at least that to the wage bill.

     

     

    So you’ve got the transfer fee plus the potential of an additional £3M on the wage bill and none of it guarantees CL football.

     

     

    My view of strikers is that at whatever level you play at the net is in the same place and there’s always one man to beat. We’re likely to get a better return by getting the top scorer from Div 2 than we would from a similarly priced player with a poorer record from Div 1.

  2. aromananonly1

     

     

    at 00.20

     

     

    Of Course Ma Patter is Great..

     

     

    Doncha Know that Ah used tae Entertain folks ,fur A Living?

     

     

    wi A wee bit Song and Dance..plus A Wee trumpet Solo.. thrown in.. if the Crowd dinnae like ma Jokes?

     

     

    or a wee Set as A Piano Player,in a Honky Tonk Bar. when times wur Tough..

     

     

    Ah hiv done it awe..

     

     

     

    The Hard Wey..

     

     

    Noo Ah am Living oan the Fat of the Land..

     

     

    and Things are Great!

     

     

    Jist like Ah try tae tell You Young Fellas..

     

     

     

    Be Patient..

     

     

    Things ALWAYS GET BETTAH…

     

     

    and Celtic , wull always Come up Trumps..

     

     

    So it is Written and So it shall Be…

     

     

    (Are ye Coontin awe these woids.. KK?… Ah suppose ye ur.. Ye jis Canny stoap reading Ma Stuff.. Ye Luv It.. Gwa Oan.. Admit It!}

     

     

    Good Night Kiddo..and Quit ye Passion fur Fashin’!

     

     

    Kojo

     

     

    Still Laughin

     

     

    and Good Night ..

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Anyway… that wiz then and this is Noo..

  3. celticrollercoaster on

    Cowiebhoy

     

     

    Agreed.Cant help thinking we missed a trick on Johnny Russell.

     

     

    HH

     

     

    CRC

  4. Kilbowie Kelt on

    I think he must have forgotten that he had already made his exit.

     

     

    Always a mistake…………..

     

     

    :¬)))

  5. Margaret McGill on

    Yeah but youre the CQN mascot idiot for the Alzheimers brigade. Spank that keyboard

     

    and maybe in a million years you could write an Alls Well That Ends Well Tim style masterpiece.

     

    A sorta tale for Timpletons such as yourself.

  6. Hooper

     

     

    Glad to see the back of him. Scored some decent goals but he has led the club and us fans a merry dance for far too long. Good luck in the championship ya clown.

  7. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Did the SPFL invite the beast or did he gatecrash ?

     

     

    If selling Gary Hooper for 5m is good business today was 9m not better in January ? The league was won. Did we think he would make the difference against Juve ? Or is Duffield now doing our transfer dealings in the winter ?

     

     

    If the beast was invited as there iis no sponsor what kind of statement of intent about the future ….or are EBTs now legal ? I may have missed the ruling.

     

     

    And why an ex Rangers manager keeping the promise of successive promotions and Cardihun E.B.T and Sally as being great guys.

     

     

    SPFL still selling to a public that are now cosmetically a division higher than last year. Throwing their full weight already in the Ogilvie, Cardihun, Bus burners triumvitate.

     

     

    Pandering to Sevco …..errrm ….why not even a hint of pretence anymore ?

     

     

    And trot out all in the name of the Mc Leish report for the permanently gullible. Remember what he said last summer about Sevcos rightful place ?

     

     

    I see the charities will be doing well this year. Lets hope our creative accountancy is not as good as the new better go faster stripes of the SPL or the needy could be losing out.

     

     

    Who cares ?

     

     

    What can poor Celtic do about it ?

     

     

    Too many questions ?

     

     

    Yeah it hurts the head so lets get ready to rumble ?

     

     

    Puke puke wretch

  8. Good that Celtic got £5m for a player in the final year of his contract.

     

     

    Not so good we haven’t signed a reliable goalscorer since Hoops and Stokes.

     

     

    Not so good we play our most important games of the season next week in a much weaker position.

  9. Margaret McGill on

    Big G

     

     

    00:43 on 25 July, 2013

     

     

    What do you mean? No class some of you Timpletons.

     

    I would like to say Thank you Gary. Thank you for all the wonderful and critical goals you scored for our beloved Celtic. I understand you are a professional and are seeking richer pastures in England. Good Luck and Thank you.

  10. 2013 State Of The Non-Union(ists):

     

     

    Glasgow Celtic FC are being run better than any club in the history of Scottish Football.

     

     

    Building on foundations, ethics and business priciples laid nearly 20 years earlier by the man who saved them from oblivion, Fergus McCann, Celtic are Scottish champions, cup holders, competing for a place in the forthcoming season’s champions league, the world’s premier club football competition which it graced and shook up along the way the season past.

     

     

    The club operates with debt reduced to a managable level and recently moved/is in the process of moving on 2 players of youthful promise for circa 17 million GBP, a gross profit of circa 14 million GBP, net expected around 10-11 million GBP.

     

     

    This will allow the club to replenish playing staff through its successful scouting system by adding players to compliment the positions vacated. Expect an outlay of some 5-7 million on new playing staff dependent of CL qualification.

     

     

    This is a club at the zenith of its existence in Scottish Football.

     

     

    Elsewhere, major changes in the structure of European football promise trans-european leagues and riches beyond anything ever known to us.

     

     

    Because of – PRECISELY because of – the business practices which cause so much angst among skeptical supporters, Celtic are in a position to believe we may actually be involved in changes to the European footballing landscape.

     

     

    It has been, and remains, a hell of a job to manouvre this club into the sights of continental giants and to have it considered in the same breath as the elite when powerbrokers and financiers sit down to discuss the future of the game.

     

     

    The evolved synchronicity between business and playing operations at Celtic Park has put us here and will keep us there, in the minds of the movers and shakers when the crunch comes.

     

     

    As a support, we need to remember that. We need to acknowledge that. We need to be PROUD of that.

     

     

    There’s no shame in wealth of riches, or brokering players for profit.

     

     

    Pre-emptive mineshafting does not suit us as a support.

     

     

    20 years ago I was stood in the pissing rain protesting in the car park with the other Celts For Change bhoys, kept well away from the Kellys and Whites in their ivory towers, glowering down at us from the high windows, smirking contempt as they bled the club to death.

     

     

    It would have been EASY to mineshaft into misery then.

     

     

    But the old ‘Hope in your heart’ kept us all rolling along against the storm of woe.

     

     

    Look around. Look at now. Look at where this club is.

     

     

    Look in the mirror. You’re part of it, wherever you may be. It’s Celtic.

     

     

    It’s brilliant. Dig it, or walk.

  11. If anyone had bid £9m for Hooper in January he would have been away in January.

     

     

    But just like the press why let the truth get in the way of an internet rant.

  12. Margaret McGill on

    Big G

     

     

    00:54 on 25 July, 2013

     

     

    Sorry Big G. No personal slight intended just that your posting is pure pish.

  13. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    Kevtic

     

     

    It was one point of many.

     

     

    And you missed the point entirely.

     

     

    It was more about a prevailing mindset and how we keep quiet to enhance the false perception that there is nothing we can do about it. It being Scottish football is ran for the benefit of the Old Firm. Nothing new there as the origin of the name testifies

     

     

    I thought my questions were highly legitinate concerning the governance of the sport in Scotland. Very pertinent to the start of a new era so to speak.

     

     

    I agree with many of your points. You enjoy Celtics riches while they last. It will

     

    make you feel better.

     

     

    If your happy with Celtics part in the governance of our game and its new direction. That turning a blind eye to this …as we do …is ok because we are making barrels of cash then you will dog it.

     

     

    Others of a more Tim like bent will walk.

     

     

    I agree

     

     

    HH

  14. No idea how this compares to our spending but some imfo for those who want to argue about wages.

     

    http://news.sky.com/story/1100132/football-finance-premier-league-wages-up-9-percent

     

    Football Finance: Premier League Wages Up 9%

     

     

    The average weekly wage of a top flight footballer hits £30,000 – and club bosses are urged not to blow their huge TV deal cash.

     

     Clubs Urged To Spend Less On Wages…England’s top football clubs have been warned not to pay their players too much money as revenues in the Premier League hit a record high.According to football finance experts at Deloitte, increased television money helped Premier League clubs’ revenue reach £2.36bn in 2011/2012.Some 70% of that – £1.7bn – went on wages, a 4% rise on the previous year. And they soared further by 9% last season with elite footballers earning a total £1.8bn, with the average wage for a top flight player being around £30,000 a week….

     

    …Manchester City was the best-paying club in 2011/12, with wages of £202m, while Swansea City was the lowest, handing its players £35m.

     

    …Aston Villa spent the biggest slice of its revenues on wages, at 94%, while Norwich City spent just 49%, the lowest in the top tier.

  15. Kojo. Actually agree with you for a changed. We shouldn’t be scrapping by a Swedish team

     

    We banked about 15m selling players

     

    We banked over 20m from CL

     

     

    Get ur finger out

  16. What is the Stars

     

     

    Her?

     

     

    Everyone of us is allowed an opinion. Calling a fellow tim a simpleton for a differing opinion is not on.

     

     

    HH

  17. Margaret McGill on

    ok so from what I can ascertain from parsing through the blog tonight is that basically the CQN Alzheimers Conglomerate Knights (CACK) want Celtic to continue on the nice turnover EPL fodder model until the huns are back in business. Then Celtic can be cheated out of another 22 trophies, a cheating that will be celebrated exalted and encouraged by all institutions in Scotland (Scottish football authorities included) for socking it to the uppity Fenian bastards.

     

    Is that Celtic’s future?

     

    Looks like it to me

  18. What is the Stars on

    Maggie

     

    ok so from what I can ascertain from parsing through the blog tonight is that basically the CQN Alzheimers Conglomerate Knights (CACK) want Celtic to continue on the nice turnover EPL fodder model until the huns are back in business. Then Celtic can be cheated out of another 22 trophies, a cheating that will be celebrated exalted and encouraged by all institutions in Scotland (Scottish football authorities included) for socking it to the uppity Fenian bastards.

     

    Is that Celtic’s future?

     

    Looks like it to me

     

     

    The above is deranged ranting

     

    so many clowns on here actually beleive this nonsense its depressing

     

    anyway goodnight,

  19. Margaret McGill on

    Yup Celtic got £35m in the last 10 days and are worried they wont make the ECL group stages.

  20. WeefratheTim on

    Couldn’t sleep, so logged back in for a couple of minutes. Cannot believe the comments from Margaret McGill, the insults are totally unbecoming of this site and I hope Paul67 takes action on this asap. Just as an aside, my ole mum is in her final days with Alzheimer’s disease, and that is a total insult to any poster on here. I really hope Paul67 reads this.

     

     

    Weefra HH

  21. Rascar Capac on

    I think football go through the same range of emotions regardless of what is actually happening.

     

     

    O’Neil era… Should be be good, but it’s actually a bit boring now.

     

     

    Nowadays… Champions, rolling in cash… Should be good, but we’re all terrified that it’ll all go to shit.

     

     

    The crap years… The St Patricks Day Massacre, the Peter Grant Cup Final.

     

     

    Paul McStay.

     

     

    The blog has been interesting tonight, but you definitely need the downs for the ups.

     

     

    And folk are desperately trying to make this up a down.

  22. Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on

    We turned down an offer from Gary, Lenny said so Who knows anything about it. The point being the CL qaulifiers are more important to us than the last 16 games. Even the money horny tims can see that one. A replacement in January would have been better. The Doyle approach was given short shrift by Wolves.

     

    I wish Gary all the best but 5m in Jan would be better than 5m now

     

     

     

    BUT the SPFL show today was far more concerning.

     

     

    A good start ?

     

     

    The tims will be happy with their money and profits. Lets release SFA II …he is bigger and badder ….best time to do it. So we believe in the gospel of Lord Nimmo now do we ?

     

     

    Or are we resigned to our fate ?

     

     

    One last question. Why does this logical line of questioning induce such anger ?

     

     

    I dont see it as a rant at all. The lack of substance in the retorts of he so called ranting is more illuminating.

     

     

    I will say it. That is a simpletons reaction. Deal with the issues raised or ignore it. Its the truly decent thing to do. So why not do it ?

     

     

    HH

  23. WeefratheTim on

    rascar capac

     

     

    Yer doin’ fine. Ye are dain’ yer best te livin’ the place up. Good on ye. The negativity on here tonight is, hunbelievable. Good night.

     

     

    Weefra HH

  24. Taking a break for some food getting this new track together (Upcoming on Drumcode) and read the Hoopmeister is for the off.

     

     

    5 mil, sore one but hey 5 mil, doubled our money so cant really complain. QPR in the championeeeeeship, bit strange, unless the Hoopmeister has a different algorithm for working out progression it’s a big step backwards.

     

     

    Who knows, maybe it’s a Baldrickesque plan to end up back at the Scunts

     

     

    Bit of after hours sounds after last months ”One Trip And Your Laughing’ (Asda slogan from 1995) event in an Asda in the South Side. Full set is in the set list ;)

     

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzaRQfJiF0w