Jonny Hayes and Oliver Burke are rightly receiving praise following the drubbing of St Johnstone yesterday, deservedly so. I have a latent worry that Callum McGreogr will be moved to left back against Valencia on Thursday, as he was at Ibrox in December, but Jonny’s solid performance will hopefully see Brendan Rodgers maintain faith in him for our Europa League tie.
Burke is a handful to play against. Still only 21, he has the speed and power to stretch a defence, which will occupy the thoughts of Valencia scouts as they plan for Thursday. They will not want to leave space for him to exploit.
It says much the form of Scott Sinclair that his hat-trick was one of the less noteworthy aspects of the game. 10 goals in 9 games since Christmas is exceptional. He has the experience and engine to find space. Watch his run for the opening goal against St Johnstone. When Oliver Burke crossed the ball, Scott was 20 yards from goal and not on any defender’s radar, but he made up 18 yards to get on the end of the cross.
All three players need confidence to be at their best. If we want to come through a difficult February in good shape, helping them maintain their confidence will help.
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Fana-a-tic, Think we were mixing up our Higgin’s. John is a dyed in the wool Celt as I said Alex was from the other side.
HOT SMOKED on 11TH FEBRUARY 2019 4:14 PM
“TTT “1:43
Your `No mean accolade` comment resonates with me. Our support can be great but it can also be too demanding and undermine the confidence of those who need it most..”
******
Indeed. Credit where it is due, all round.
We have heard of a keeper being cheered after a good save, mostly due to relief; but to hear almost continuous applause for his fielding, was a new one on me.
Sorry to hear you are under the weather. Hope you hit top form soon.
Kent is probably one of their better players but I think he is a loanee & unless they break the piggy bank, he will be offski at end of season.
Kent is decent for them, but average in the grand scale of things.
Of the boys Liverpool have out on loan, the lad Harry Wilson at Derby is the better of the 2.
Kent’s numbers in terms of goals and/or assists, simply do not stack up versus a Forrest or Sinclair.
!! BADA BING !!@ 4.04.
Castagne?
No mention of money but he was quoted in La Gazzetta Dello Sport (a serious 7 days a Week football paper.)
“It seems Celtic Glasgow were interested but I preferred to stay and develop here.I have signed a 2 year contract.”
SoT-But Atalanta refused to sell the 23-year-old, who recently scored against Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus.
However, respected Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio claims the Hoops offered nearly £9m for the defender.
!!BADA BING!!
I had the feeling Brendan was talking about Castagne when he said the player has to want to come, recently when talking about transfers..
HH
SP- SoT- if true,surprised at size of the bid….
is VAR in operation on Thursday?
BADA BING
Not half as surprised as Pistol Pete who spluttered his cappuccino all over his heated driveway on hearing such.
Aaron Ramsey to Juve, 400k a week….
!!BADA BING!!
I think the idea that if Celtic throw enough wedge at a player he’ll jump through hoops:))) to sign for us is a wee bit off the mark these days, the slyer has all the power unless it’s someone like Burke who I can see signing for us if it’s possible.
In all honestly I don’t blame Castange for staying in Italy as you see our players getting crocked every week and absolutely no protection from the officials, WTF would you want to play here?
Must be frustrating for Brendan when he clearly sees how our quality loans for instance have moved the team to a whole new level..
As a club I think we’re between a rock and a hard place..
Bring on the Spaniards by the score!
!! BADA BING !!.
Castagne story was a strange one.Vast amounts of made up click bait guff and virtually nothing anywhere remotely reliable.Facts known to me.-
He mouthed off re wanting more playing time..Atalanta Manager said he picked the team.Both the Player and the Manager stated they’d had a meeting and everything was cool.Fly a kite sites then linked Castagne with Lazio /Fiorentina/Napoli /Celtic/Hoffenheim/Swansea and Besiktas.Quoted money ranged from 7 million to 14 million euros.Atalanta stated He went for sale .Window shut.Since then the Atalanta Manager has taken to praising Castagne and Atalanta’s other wing back -Hateboer..
Stuff in the Sun contains stuff which doesnt appear in the Italian version of the Presser.
Bottom line -WTF knows !
Wasnt not went
SP- No doubt that it’s harder now to attract players,for a number of reasons. HH
SoT-thanks for reply HH and your updates updates all things Italia
I find it hard to believe that Celtic offered £8.8m up front for Castange as it is not consistent with our transfer strategy. Perhaps we could have proposed a package worth up to £8.8m but that would likely have included a ‘possible’ sell on fee and all sorts of other clauses. According to Peter Lawwell our policy is to pick up players, develop them, add value and then sell them on at a profit. If you sign a £9m player and pay him 30k plus bonuses per week over two years thats an outlay of over £12m and then when we sell him Atalanta want a slice of the pie, say 20%. It’s a huge risk and the sums just don’t add up. Anyway, him having played and scored in a team that demolished Juventus 3-0 he is probably well out of our price range now.
!!BADA BING!!
You can hope that someone like Toljan just falls in love with us and says feck it I want to stay here:))
I thought when we signed French Eddy it showed we would pull it up if the situation required it, let’s see what the summer brings.
We’re looking strong even with all the injuries we have operation kick us off the park is in full flow, don’t be surprised to see Ryan on the treatment table soon, he seems to be getting the KT treatment now:(
HH
Alex Higgins?
My addled ole bonce thinks I saw a TV thing with John Parrot and Alex Higgins talking about football and the latter declaring his love for Man Utd.
Atalanta Juventus was the day before the window shut.
Throughout the whole Castagne saga I never once got the feeling that he wanted to come to us.
His quotes never once rose above the non-committal, and were often politely discouraging: ‘happy to stay at Atalanta… if I move it will be to a team regularly challenging for the league and a force in Europe’, etc etc.
Which is his right, of course. Up to him. So the only thing we can say is c’est la vie, all the best, and move on.
Which we did, to Toljan. Who is looking more and more to me like the real deal, and we might have a chance of securing him permanently.
STARRY PLOUGH on 11TH FEBRUARY 2019 5:55 PM
!!BADA BING!!
You can hope that someone like Toljan just falls in love with us and says feck it I want to stay here:))
——-
That.
Looks already like we are on the way to winning Olly Burke’s heart – a Timo first goal and a Toljan second under the lights on Valentine’s Day and we’ll be beating them aff with a stick!
:))))))))))
Of the 4 loan players we have i think that there is a very small chance that Toljan, Burke and Benkovic will return next season. I would suggest that none of these players were signed with a view to permanent transfers. There is a decent chance that Weah will come back for another year loan based on his age and the fact he has more development in him. What is important with loan players is not that they want to stay but that they are a success and that will persuade other Clubs to entrust us with such talented players in the future.
When did they start with the “Morelos is the best forward in Scotland” nonsense?
The ugly wee thug is bang average at best.
Did we not laugh him onto the park at Paradise?
Laughable.
Eurochamps67
Would love to have the 4 Loanees on permanent deals but realistically that’s not going to happen. Toljan is in our price range and if he really enjoys his stay, he is a realistic prospect, Burke is a Tim he really seems to be loving it, so he could be tempted but what salary is he on at West Brom?.
Also West Brom paid 15 million for him, if he continues to do well for us they will be looking to recoup their 15 million at least. Would Celtic spend 15 million on him, if we had 15 million to spend would we get more bang for our buck if we went shopping in places like Croatia, Slovakia or Ukraine.
The best we could hope for with Benkovic & Tim O’ would be to extend loans for another year.
DAVID17 on 11TH FEBRUARY 2019 6:12 PM
What is important with loan players is not that they want to stay but that they are a success and that will persuade other Clubs to entrust us with such talented players in the future.
——————
I agree that that is the first priority, and thanks to Brendan it has been achieved IMO (despite the stone-age league we play in).
But the loan market is becoming more and more complex as financially-bloated clubs use their cash muscle to harvest the world’s best prospects, only a small percentage of which will ever make the first team.
So does a 19 or 21-year-old guy who already has a Ferrari in the driveway, made for life already, want to spend his best footballing years in the stiffs at Chelsea, Citeh or PSG, or would he rather play football and win things with us, with European football more or less guaranteed, for less dosh?
Many won’t, for sure. But some will.
Hi Bhoys
Does Marvin Compper only play against Morton?
KEEP THE FAITH
Bada – re Ramsey to Juventus, a truly astonishing salary even by today’s obscene standards.
Ramsey is very good. Not great, not world class but very good.
His new wage approximately 16 times greater than the upper tier of our wage structure.
If this is a barometer of earnings no wonder it is difficult to get decent players.
Sigh.
Hail hail
CORKCELT on 11TH FEBRUARY 2019 6:54 PM
Aye – Burke and Benkovic I would say we have no chance.
This is the other side of the financial insanity prevailing in English football. Same with Paddy Roberts – they were bought in an overheated English market, their clubs will want a large part of their money back – but who’s going to match it outside of England? No-one. So the players don’t get a game and they can’t be sold. Talent is withering on the vine down there because of the Sky billions.
PSG have already put the line in the sand re Weah – if we get another season with Timo I’ll be delighted.
Toljan is perhaps possible – and I would be delighted if that happened. I think he more than any of the new bhoys has transformed the way we play. The thought of him on the right and KT on the left…
Hope that Ross County win tonight’s HIghland Derby; they’ve started the better.
As for tonight’s draw, anybody but Sevco. 4 games worth of tripe hype is already too much. If we get another home tie then the Treble Treble becomes very very likely. We don’t lose at Celtic Park. And we don’t lose at Hampden.
Ok quick question…
If you could sign one of the loanees permanently out of Burke, Weah, Toljan and Benkovic
Which one would you choose?
B-)
What an insightful post that was. Inverness take the lead ;-)
Have Rangers got a penalty yet?
Jobo: Agree entirely. Even if we draw Killie/Sevco the media will be full of Celtic v Sevco in the next round.
Also hope my past pupil captains Killie to a win in the replay.
Caley 1 up BBC2
All I see are 20 players with same strip on!
Given that Premier Sports and BBC have both shown 2 games each from the last 2 rounds of the cup I’m guessing that all 4 quarter finals will be televised?
John Cheatin gives Ross County a FK on the edge of the box,for the same challenge that seen Eddie carried off in Perth…