We seem to have a lot of forwards. Stokes, Pukki, Balde, new recruit Fridjonsson, and on-loan, Atajic and Watt, while Georgios may yet stay beyond the summer. That’s six under contract for the Champions League qualifiers, not counting Sweden’s ‘next Henrik Larsson’, who is likely to move on soon.
Quantity is one thing but cost is just as important, only Samaras and Pukki are likely to be on wages competitive with some of the richer leagues in Europe, so the actual spend on forwards is likely to be considerably less than on defence or midfield. The manager is likely to be operating within budget for this area of the team.
What we’re missing is an on-form striker who is capable of embarrassing St Johnstone and Inverness’s finest with their goals-to-games ratio, not to mention our own free-wheeling creative-mid. Gone are the days Celtic strikers stats are dismissed as a mere by-product of the sheer volume of chances they are presented with. Without a class act up front, the squad is unbalanced.
There was a note of disappointment in Neil Lennon’s voice when he spoke of missing a potential signing last week. I’m almost certain we’ll sign a striker this week but if he’s more of a hunch than a certified target we’re wasting our money. Hunch signings are fine but you can only give space to so many in any one season. We’ve made our low-cost gambles up front, and there is never a time for a high-cost uncertified gamble.
Celtic have a bit of money burning a hole in their pocket earning 15% interest from the Co-op Bank at the moment. The desire to spend it, from chief exec, to manager, to scouts and all other influencers will be practically unstoppable, which is why I’m so sure we’ll sign someone. Time will tell if we experience buyers regret.
Reminder to everyone who booked tickets for the CQteN St Patrick’s Day Dinner that they have to be paid by 31 January. Let me know if you can’t find details, celticquicknews@gmail.com
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Big Nan, well done on your efforts, and I totally understand why you feel you can’t go on.
The problem with secret organisations is the nature of the beast, secrecy.
Difficult to fight when the fights rigged.
Malone Bhoy
You are correct, we have no right to win CL groups, however, we do have the potential to be regulars at that level, and still do well.
We can again, but we need to be slightly better in our transfer dealings, no more projects or hunches.
HH
glendalystonsils
14:19 on 27 January, 2014
BIg Nan
Aye , it’s the devils own job when the authorities one has to go through are the self same ones who feel their power is threatened by the petition.
………………………….
They are stupid too. They should have mentioned (at least) my Norwegian stuff and then dismissed it and tooke the route suggested by Grand Lodge, but to simply not even mention it and then allow the deputy Convener to mock it and me wasn’t clever.
Hubris.
Hendrix 67
Congratulations to you and your missus. Hope all goes well. You better start packing some extra sleep in now :-))
kikinthenakas,
How much do you think we’ll shell out for LG?
Do you think his brains are scrambled ?
I hope we poach him as we don’t have a poacher…it’s an injustice :)
EmeraldBee\o/ proud to be an internet bampot
13:54 on
27 January, 2014
“If the current club is claiming to be the club in liquidation, these taxes will have to be paid before the club can play in a European competition. There are rules to prevent clubs from offloading debt through liquidation & carrying. No football authority have confirmed continuity officially. They can’t as the creditors will have a claim.”
___
That’s about the crux of this thing. Usually when a new entity emerges from the ashes of another the name is completely changed, or changed enough to discearn one from the other (challenges over who uses wheat name only occur when another business using teh name or similar makes a legal complaint), some difference is needed so that when punters try to claim on teh old entities warranties or liabilities they can then say “Naw, no us. We’re the Peoples Front of Judea; the old Judean Peoples Front used to operate from this adderss doing the same business, but they went into liquidation”.
So if the RFCIL are recognised in football as the same entity and have to pay up these other Non-Footballing debts, the creditors of the original company have a claim. I’d think that given teh claims from the new entity as having been around forever, and the complicit media in spreading the “same club” p1$h; then the original creditors must have a claim. Here’s hoping hope Her Maj’s RC does for them again.
Greenpinata
Players who can score in the league should b e able to score in the CL. There is not a huge difference when it comes to goal scoring for me. I think we lack in the midfield in Europe. Our defence is fairly solid and our keeper is top drawer. The midfield were the under acheivers in Europe this season. If you have a solid midfield and a play maker it makes the forward areas better. We lost the ball way too much and our captain getting sent off and banned for 3 games didn’t help. We lost a key centre midfielder. Forrest and derk being injured didn;t help us in the wide areas. Forrest is a potent player in Europe and although he can be frustrating he produces on the night. If you supply a decent goal scorer with the ball he will score. Skippy proved that. If you have a goal hanger that knows where to be at the right time they will score goals. Set pieces are crucial for us. We have a great delivery from a few of our players and have a threat in the air. It’s that 6 yard box striker dare I say in the Andy Walker mould who will score scabby goals that we are lacking. I still see the boy McKay as probably the best in that mould available in our price range. I am not obviously a coach or manager though. I don’t see what they see in players.
Leigh Griffiths for me is a maverick and needs the whole team giving him the ball much in the way Arsenal or set up. They have one striker and the whole team plas to give them the ball. I’m not sure Leigh can be a hit at Celtic but I wouldn;t pay more than £500k for him. He will also need to clean up his act off the pitch.
LB
No Bobby Does It Petta
Have to disagree bud that Hibs were “pitiful”.
I thought they put up a spirited show and could consider themselves a bit unlucky to be on the end of a 4 -0 reverse. Considering they lost 3 goals early in the game the week before, I expected they’d pack the defence and kick us black and blue. They didn’t. They tried to get up the park, and played the game in a sporting manner.
theoriginalsadiesbhoy
The wee man is 2 so I haven’t really slept in 2 years anyway, I usually go for a kip in work if I’m not busy.
TOSB
“With regard to posters who are annoyed about ‘haggling’ over Leigh Griffiths, I would say that Celtic are quite right to do so. ”
I suspect that some of our posters would have outbid Billy McNeill for Martin Hayes.
Hendrix, congratulations. Just as well that she isn’t Hendricks. Otherwise, certain CQN posters would be furious with you.
SFTB
I was being light-hearted as i think your posts are among , if not the, best on here.
I meant that you meant (!) ` before making any comment` immediately after you had made a comment 0:-) Hope this makes sense!
JJ
Big Nan
both the dismissive attitude and the personal mockery are evidence of their uneasiness.
I hope and pray you have the last laugh.
Can remember watching from the Jungle and Bobby Murdoch getting pelters from the punters in his first couple of seasons at celtic Park. Glad he stayed.
setting free the bears supports Res. 12 & Oscar Knox
My cousin lived in London when we signed Martin Hayes and he said at the time he was a great player. Still takes abuse for that to this day.
LB
john o’neil
14:25 on 27 January, 2014
Hendrix, congratulations. Just as well that she isn’t Hendricks. Otherwise, certain CQN posters would be furious with you.
————————————————–
Cheers mate, had to word that carefully.
SFTB. Agree with you mate regarding the saving up the fees to buy one proper striker.
A prime example would be a Rasmussen, Bangura and Puki/Balde could have got us Rhodes or Ings or Alfie.
Just smacks of short termism or panic buying.
HH
/Bishop B
Maybe the arrival of Jock Stein had something to do with Bobby’s improvement.
SFTB
Im sure you would agree, that in any other sphere of business, projects and hunches that don’t come off, wouldn’t be tolerated long term.
So, who is responsible at Celtic for squandering badly needed resources, who is it, that, isn’t being prudent
Is it the chief executive, or any of the billionaire businessmen, who don’t know how to spend money wisely.
Who knows eh, but my point is clear, someone should be responsible
Im sure there are many people, who could manage a proper transfer policy.
HH
It’s understandable that many supporters will feel underwhelmed at the thought of us signing Leigh Griffiths from Wolves but he is a striker that our scouting staff and coaching staff will have seen quite a bit of over the years and if he does sign for us should be given the same chance to show what he can do as every other player does.
Our best striker over the past few years was undoubtedly Gary Hooper, who before signing for Celtic had a goal-scoring record of 91 goals in 252 games (36.11% strike rate). All of these goals were in lower (and non) league football in England. His record improved remarkably at Celtic where he scored 82 goals in 138 games (59.4%) and despite only playing for Celtic a relatively short period time, he is our joint 23rd top scorer of all-time, tied with Tommy Burns and Murdo MacLeod.
Leigh Griffiths has played in Scotland and in the English lower leagues and has scored 111 goals in 224 games (49.55% strike rate). This compares well with Hooper and other players we have signed or who the fans would have liked to see us sign.
Anthony Stokes had scored 46 goals in 130 (35.38%) games before joining Celtic. Since joining his record reads 54 goals in 136 games (39.7%); a slight improvement.
Georgios Samaras had scored 42 goals in 159 games (26.4%) before joining us and at Celtic has scored 71 goals in 241 games (29.5%); again a slight improvement.
A number of people would have liked to see us sign Johnny Russell from Dundee United. His record reads 64 goals in 195 games (32.8%).
Scott McDonald was in a similar position to Griffiths, i.e. scoring goals for a lower ranked SPL side and for Motherwell he scored 45 goals in 127 games (35.4%) and for Celtic this record improved to 64 in 127 (50.4%). His stats for M’boro were 45 in 124 (36.3%).
Based on a small sample, we can see that strikers are more likely to score more goals at Celtic than elsewhere, primarily I would reckon because we create many more chances than most teams. With all this in mind, and if he signs and plays regularly, Leigh Griffiths, should be able to score a good number of goals for us and at the end of the day, whether we like him or not, or whether we think he is good enough for Celtic or not is irrelevant, and if he signs and scores goals, what’s not to like.
Mort
For Europe we either need a striker how is extremely powerful and can bully defenses and hold the ball up against the best defenders in the world in order to link play as well as score goals.
Or has the skill and trickery to bamboozle defenses and create opportunities and goals (or shooting chances) from nothing.
Or is extremely quick and can get in behind (in which case we need someone to thread the passes through).
Because we don’t dominate games in Europe the striker really needs to be able to hold the ball one way or the other, or we set up our game for counter attacking and through balls.
Simples.
I’d have concerns about Griffiths’ temperament. His off the field nonsense has been well documented and the guy seems to be a magnet for trouble. Mabye he’s screwed the nut and grown up but I hae ma doots. My gut reaction when I heard we were in for him was “Riordan mk II”
Hope I’m wrong.
Mort
very interesting stats, good reading, and certainly food for thought.
Mort
Superb stats there. What I was saying earlier but backed up with facts.
A goal scorer is a goal scorer.
I think the celtic strategy with players especially like Balde is that we are trying to get them in before they become worth £8m and out of our price range. It’s frustrating he isn;t getting more game time though but I would suspect he will replace samaras when he goes. he has a similar style but appears to have more goals in him.
LB
Mort
14:30
If you put a bit of analysis on to the types of striker you could also say that goal scoring penalty box “poacher” types will score a lot more when they come to Celtic. Forwards who play a lot more outside the box than it it will only slightly improve their tally.
Poachers being McDonald and Hooper and Stokes, Samaras being forwards. I believe Russell would have fallen into the forward category. LG I believe is somewhere in-between. He can do both and his goal scoring rate is impressive – he COULD turn out to be a top top player.
The fact that Dermot Desmond is a self made billionaire would suggest that he knows how to spend money and how to arrange finances.
Big Nan
1) Do you have an email address for those of us who signed your petition to contact to give our views on the `failings` of the committee;
2) If you do, could you furnish us with the salient points ie dismissing the Norwegian situation, so that we only stick to the facts when contacting them.
I would think quite a few of us would be willing to bombard them with emails so as to at least annoy them and remind them of our presence and feelings.
JJ
livibhoy – god bless wee oscar
14:28 on 27 January, 2014
Is it true arsenal accepted a bid of £65,000 for Hayes from another club before we nipped in and STOLE him for £650,000 ?
A wee story doing the rounds at the time HH
hendrix67
Very best wishes to you and Mrs Hendrix.
Another two years of sleepless nights!
…at least!
HH!!
Buying Griffiths for less that what we’d like to pay for a striker would be more acceptable if we got Snodgrass too. He’d be an excellent signing.
In the Edinburgh derby, Leigh Griffiths was denied a forty-yard free-kick goal after the ball crashed off the crossbar and dropped behind the goalline, before bouncing back into play.
Replays showed the ball crossed the line by a considerable margin, but referee Euan Norris waved play on.
@wiki CSC
If Griffiths does arrive and starts to misbehave off the field will he find himself out on loan to Lierse
mickbhoy
Not out to Lierse; just out on Hiserse.
JJ
monaghan1900
13:54 on 27 January, 2014
FFin’ probing interrogatory on the land deals:
“Is it possible for a citizen of Glasgow to take them to court for misinterpretation of public funds?”
_________________________________________________________________________
A genuine LOL moment there. You now owe me for a new i-pad keyboard,which has just been ruined by spluttering tea all over it!
HH
hun skelper
I have no idea but after seeing him play I wouldn’t be surprised.
Biggest waste of cash since Gary Gillespie.
LB
PAUL67
15% interest,you are a really wicked man putting that in print!
All those huns phoning up the hotlines to complain,faffin brilliant!!
Respect….
mickbhoy1888
14:39 on 27 January, 2014
That’s a plan, I like it.
We need a guy with your thinking :-) HH
livibhoy – god bless wee oscar
14:42 on 27 January, 2014
Only one in a long line of duds we signed at the time, HH