Brendan Rodgers’ comments about Moussa Dembele, “It’s something you have to deal with”, suggests it is likely we will be without him tonight, meaning we go into one of the biggest games of the season without (currently) our best striker.
As it stands right now, it is likely, but not certain, that Moussa will leave this week. For a start, those delicate muscles would need to pass a fitness test. One week ago, Celtic expected the player to remain at the club until January, when they believed his value would be no less than it was then. That possibility remains, and it should be noted, Moussa has behaved professionally.
The situation is far from ideal. Only yesterday, I wrote about the need to concentrate on the important job to be done tonight. Under any reasonable circumstances, we should see Suduva out of the competition comfortably, but this is football and we both know anything can happen if one team is even 10% off peak form.
The Europa League is a poor relation to the Champions League but it remains hugely important, not least of all in attracting one or two players, who will want European as well as domestic exposure. I don’t know how motivated the squad are, but they should be at peak preparedness; tonight is significantly the most important game of the week.
One positive is that Leigh Griffiths was made for days like these. He has the experience and aptitude to lead the line.
Let’s get this job done.
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STAIRHEEDRAMMY on 30TH AUGUST 2018 12:35 PM
WITS- do you think there is a mole in the camp?
More like a Sloth , given our lack of activity.
BIG CUP WINNERS
I was not criticising Mulumbu (although I am sure he is older than 31 – born in Zaire after all). I agree he brings the qualities you state, and I absolutely agree we need to be stronger physically.
My point was that he has been a free agent for a month. We have dropped points in that time, and been dumped out of the CL ATA cost of about 30m.
If Mulumbu was who Brendan wanted… Why the feck are we only signing him now???
Is there a transfer frenzy and lack of activity all happening (or not) at the same time. asking for a friend.
GARY67
What caught my eye about the guy was his desire to “boss” other players. Dembele had an issue with him in the last 10 minutes of our reverse down there.
Desire like that isn’t fabricated.
I could almost console myself with the comforting thought that should we not get reinforcements signed in this transfer window that we still looked strong enough to beat all domestic opposition.
But selling our main striking option?
Would it be cynical to say -£30m CL money = £10m EL + Moussa transfer fee.
Only Celtic could feck it up quite this spectacularly.
Ten in a row slipping away?
NegAnon2
Big Wavey – there is absolutely NO reason we need to keep repeating the same old movie. There are other strategies to pursue. Lawwell is holding celtic back massively – we are underperforming financially and on the pitch.
– Financially the facts state we have never been richer and we are on 2 double trebles and heading for 8 in a row. We’re probably a Europe League team given the way UEFA play their cards but I’m still gutted we didn’t make the ECL.
Anyhow, I’m intrigued as to what the other strategies are and what the heights are we can reach (given the vagaries of transfers, our market and the ECL lottery ?). I’m all ears.
If Mulumbu was who Brendan wanted… Why the feck are we only signing him now???
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Failure to get McGinn and the alarming decline in Scott Brown’s performances. I’d say we are in a pretty fluid state all over the park at the moment, which ain’t good but that’s my reading of it.
LUXCELT
Didn’t think you were pal.
Just offering my long term opinion on the player.
At this late juncture ? I really don’t care, the mistakes have been made, damage done, looking forward to repair the failings is what I want. Starting Sunday. Recriminations can wait ?
My first post on Mulumbu suggested my agreement with the timeframe in as much that the guy won’t be fit.
I hoped they wouldn’t have signed him tbh.
@ BIG WAVY on 30TH AUGUST 2018 12:49 PM
“Anyhow, I’m intrigued as to what the other strategies are and what the heights are we can reach (given the vagaries of transfers, our market and the ECL lottery ?). I’m all ears.”
So do you think the strategy we have implemented this window is the only one available? We couldn’t have brought the signings the manager wanted in prior to the qualifying games or replaced the players that left in good time?
We were informed the English window was closing early and it would be to our advantage. How have we taken advantage of it exactly?
We are violating our standards faster than we can lower them.
One minute we have guys on saying we need to beef up the team to take care of the hammer throwers then when it looks like we are signing a guy who outmuscled Broony he is not up to the mark.
Well then there is no pleasing you
Another ‘let’s manage the disappointment’ article, with athinly veiled bitch about an outstanding Celtic player…….oh and look for LG signing a new deal.
Big Wavy.
If Mulumbu was option 2 (I suspect he was nowhere near it – different type of player) then why could we not move on him as soon as J McGinn signed for Villa?
I think we are all over the place OFF the park.
BIG WAVY
Scott Brown’s decline ?
Mate you realise you are dissing the guy who is playing with a recurrence of the same injury that had a lot of the experts on here stating he was finished ?
The recurrence was reasonably well documented ?
@ DUMBHOY
> If that is the case, I would have to conclude that our planning and the execution of it is lacking in consideration, depth, responsiveness and mitigation…. and could be described as unfit and a dereliction by those responsible.
Our planning in january was sound – based on the information we had in January.
Roberts was never going to stay. Boyata was going to stay, so we sold Eric, and bought in 2 Centre Halves. one for now, one for the future.
Brendan was going to play two up front. and 3 at the back, so concluded he didn’t need a new right back.
> We have then also been lied to since it has been stated that we ALWAYS plan to emerge from a transfer window stronger than when we went in. That would not be the case if you are correct…
If a CEO has lied ot their shareholders, then it’s a quick win to get them struck off. Planning to emerge stronger, and calling someone a liar if it doesn’t happen are two different things.
The metrics for this transfer window, like all metrics, need context.
Did we plan to be stronger, yes!
Does that mean we were lied to if it doesn’t happen? No.
Should there be a retrospective to see how we did against our targets? Yes.
But are we, before the close of that window, right to say that there has been a “dereliction by those responsible”? No, my friend, that’s rather going from Zero to My-ex-girlfriend on the crazy scale v quickly.
Here’s the question i have for you. Which transfer window does business done from February to May count as?
To me, selling Armstrong, but tieing tom Rogic into a 5 year deal is good business, and makes us stronger.
How about this: Are we stronger with Armstrong with 6 months left & Rogic with 1 year – or Rogic with 5 years + Christie with 2yrs + £7m?
A transfer window in football business terms is from the close of the previous window.
Our midfield is better now.
Our Striking options are better now than on both Feb 1st and June 1st.
We are also stronger in defence. We have given a new deal to Miller, and brought in a left back, while selling no-one. We are, the very bloody definition of stronger.
Are we strong enough? That’s a different question. (i think we’re not). But that’s not the acusation that’s being levelled. You’re levelling the accusation that you’ve been lied to because we’re not stronger, when we ARE.
I’m all for open discussion. Calling people liar’s just because you don’t like something, that’s really not cool.
The Hands
That’s not a strategy debate, that’s an execution debate (effectively delivering on signings to time and budget). You’ll not get me arguing that from afar, that’s been a blooming disaster.
I’m intrigued by the “sack Lawell, there are other strategies” rant from some. I think his successor will deliver on that with greater and lesser effectiveness (as I outlined in my earlier post).
What is the alternative strategy for us thriving and surviving in 2018 in world football ? I’m intrigued.
BCW
I’m certainly not dissing him. I’m a big (converted) fan. Celtic by Numbers did a great piece on it. If it’s injury then resting him and utilising Mulumbu makes great sense.
Peter Lawwell- The Unaccountable Accountant
@ KEVINJOHN on 30TH AUGUST 2018 12:59 PM
BR has said we are not stronger. Such are our expectations now that signing up youth players on longer contracts are seen as some sort of victory.
Signing Tom Rogic on a long term deal makes business and football sense and I’m happy with it. But we have lost Armstrong and a very good player in Roberts. Armstrong hasn’t been replaced. Roberts has been replaced by a young player playing out of division 1 in Scotland and a 19 year old Aussie who Man City paid £250,000 for.
You cannot argue we have improved and it would be a stretch and a half to say that the replacements for Roberts are of an equivalent level. After all, one is supposedly a £10m player and the other two cost a combined £0.5m.
Anyone hoping Sevco qualify this afternoon?
Normally not in a 100 years!
However if we really have screwed up the transfer window quite as badly as it appears would it not be better if they were busy midweek too? Certainly for the first half of the season?
Warszavvy.
BIG WAVY on 30TH AUGUST 2018 12:51 PM
If Mulumbu was who Brendan wanted… Why the feck are we only signing him now???
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Failure to get McGinn and the alarming decline in Scott Brown’s performances. I’d say we are in a pretty fluid state all over the park at the moment, which ain’t good but that’s my reading of it.
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M8 Brown isn’t fully fit, and our lack of ability to get in a midfield player that can shoulder some defensive awareness means he has to play every minute of every game.
Cut the guy some slack.
There are many issues at CP at the moment, but don’t pin them on an alarming decline in broony.
How may times have we watched this horror movie at the end of a window.
There is a fundemental flaw at Celtic – the Strategy to weaken from a position of strength does us no favours.
Dare i say it Mulumbu would be a very good signing for us so i hope hes the first of at least three
WARSZAWABHOY on 30TH AUGUST 2018 1:07 PM
I don’t want them to qualify. They can play they their reserve/fringe players and still lose in Europe but it still raises their profile and income and they’ll have their first team players for weekends. Even UEFA don’t care about the behavior of their fans so there is no chance of them being kicked out.
ErskineTim – There are many issues at CP at the moment, but don’t pin them on an alarming decline in broony.
I didn’t. See above. Cut me a bit of slack.
Please…..
I am probably in the minority but I am not sure why people are pointing the finger as Lawwell. I believe the failure is more closer to the playing side, barring the incident with McGinn.
Even before Brendan came in everyman and his dog knew that we needed more defensive cover and yet 2 years down the line none has been identified. As for the issue with Boyata, we have been negotiating with him for months before he decided to head to the world cup. He walked away from negotiations that he will only come back after the world cup. Everyone knew that he was putting himself in the shop window to attract other offers if he had a decent world cup. If that is not a clear ” I want to be somewhere else” then I must be deaf. When the offer came for him I am sure Lawwel would have preferred to sell.
Now as for our scouting network which we spent a huge amount in setting up, it seems to now be a case of looking to see what is surplus at Man City or Liverpool. I am not sure Celtic can afford to be shopping at the EPL or even championship where an average player price starts at £8M with a pay of about £30,000 a week. We are supposed to have one of the best in Lee Cogeton , what he does or his value to Celtic I have still to find out. With our financial limitations, we should be casting our net much wider as we use to do before his and Brendan’s arrival.
Not read back can’t stand reading stuff where so called Celtic supporters want us to fail on the pitch so they can say I told you so, its sickening.
For what its worth I want Celtic to succeed, unlike many others on here who claim that they are in the know I have no idea what is going on at board level. However to suggest that the board is actively working to give the title to Rangers or to get Brendan to resign is so far off the scale I can’t even see it.
I am emotionally invested in Celtic, in addition to of course enjoying watching games I get great satisfaction from a successful team on the pitch and can be a real crabbit bassa when we lose, just ask my long suffering wife. However having been a supporter all my life and a season ticket holder since around 1980 I take the rough with the smooth. No screaming web site nutter will determine how or when I support Celtic. I’ll be there tonight and on Sunday supporting my team and hoping that we get results that will ensure next week at work is as much fun as it can be.
If you get no joy from Celtic I suggest you just leave it alone, take up golf.
One other thing, what on earth drives anyone, who from the outside appears to hate everything at Celtic, spend hours on here every day trying to get guys who actually enjoy attending matches to agree with their position and take up their joyless negative approach to all things green and white, it is just mental!!
@ BIG WAVY on 30TH AUGUST 2018 1:00 PM
When the execution has been as bad as it appears, it starts to look surprisingly like a strategy issue. After all, we have been here time and again. Also, what the budget is set at is a strategy and not execution issue.
Firstly, I would say that it would be far harder to replace BR than to replace Lawwell. Lawwell is revered by some but in the game the greatest commodities are managers, not executives. Case and point- Lawwell has been executive both under Deila’s tenure and Rodger’s tenure. The difference in results is stark between the two tenures. Is that down to Lawwell, the common denominator over both tenures or the difference in quality between the managers?
“What is the alternative strategy for us thriving and surviving in 2018 in world football ? I’m intrigued.”
You are suggesting that there is no other approach than the one we have taken this window?
So to run down: double treble winners, CL two years in a row, EL after Christmas for first time in years, £15m in incoming sales in this and January windows (putting us comfortably in net profit for purchases over the same period), £30m in bank as at Christmas, record turnover and record profit expected in upcoming accounts and yet according to the manager and in the opinion of a majority of the support we have gone backwards (or at the very least stood still) in terms of playing squad.
However, you argue that, notwithstanding such favourable circumstances, there was no other way to approach this window? This was the best outcome that could be achieved?
Not sure where the idea that we have to come out of every window stronger comes from, especially when you operate a model which looks to by young talent and develop it into players who go to established champions league clubs in europe for €25m. Its how we work, so we’re able to mitigate against the almost inevitable occasional Cl qualification failure and still have a highly paid footballing operation
Effectively what we’re saying is that not only do we need to replace Patrick Roberts, Stuart Armstrong, and Moussa Dembele with players of similar quality, we actually need to replace them with better, and for less money than we’ve been paid for two of them, and pay them the same amount they were getting at celtic.
So really, beat the market in every window, while still scouting, signing and bringing through players who can be sold on at a profit.
PHIL01 on 30TH AUGUST 2018 1:17 PM
I am probably in the minority but I am not sure why people are pointing the finger as Lawwell.
Even before Brendan came in everyman and his dog knew that we needed more defensive cover and yet 2 years down the line none has been identified.
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Sorry – that’s not entirely correct. The finger is being pointed due to the inability of ‘Lawwell’ – or the people who are responsible for contract negotiation – to complete contract agreements for players who have been identified.
Unless Brendan is incorrect about the well-documented targets that were identified that we have subsequently failed to sign.
HH
BGFC
? on 30TH AUGUST 2018 8:40 AM
Hmmm! I wonder how CQN would look if we…
VFR! Great post!
T
@ CELTIC40ME on 30TH AUGUST 2018 1:21 PMV
I don’t think people expect us to necessarily sign better players than those that have left but (should Dembele go for the quoted £25m), we will have received around £40m in transfer since January on top of having huge reserves (£30m) in the bank and expected record turnover.
You cannot implement a system whereby you sell off the best assets and replace with significantly inferior (or not at all) players or bring in loans and hope to be successful. We did it under Lennon. We sold off some very good players and didn’t build upon those sales. How many players did we sell for big money under Ronny? None. Because we sold assets and didn’t adequately replace them.
We are the only club in the world that is immune to the benefit of increased revenue and profit.
GARY67 on 30TH AUGUST 2018 12:34 PM
Suggested Mullumbu earlier in the window, obviously a last minute panic signing since he’s been a feee agent all summer. Would be happy with him as back up to Brown/Ntcham duo in central midfield.
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IF and it’s a big IF Mullumbu signs how do you know it’s a panic buy, could it be that he/his agent were contacted months ago and he was ‘surveying his options’ and once all/none panned out he might be interested. Not a supporter of anyone in Celtic FC apart from the team but really we have reached the damned if we do and damned if we don’t point have we not?!
The Hands
Not talking about the window per se. I asked what the post-Lawell strategy for CEO is. I’ll say it again – I suspect his successor will follow the strategy of buy low : sell high, diversify revenue streams, etc etc etc.
The execution of failing on Puccini (who apparently is a diddy) at £7m looks like a Congerton clusterfuck and a Lawell execution piece. McGinn likewise and McKenna jaw-droppingly awful.
Picking poor talent (Brendan and his staff), failing to acquire them (Lawell and his staff) and the subsequent public spat has seen a disastrous window so far. But a clear shared responsibility.
But anyhow, my questiuon in para 1 is what I raised. Got a view ?
My main thought watching Molambu was ‘what’s he doing playing for Kilmarnock?’
By far the best player on the pitch when they beat Celtic.
I’ve been trying to think of a non-hysterical way of summarising the past few months and Catman has kindly helped out: ‘lack of leadership’.
Make no mistake, BR is far from blameless and his descion to vent his spleen to the SMSM is an act of stupidity i will never understand.
However, ultimate leadership comes from the CEO and executive who are responsible for developing and executing a strategy to take forward whatever organisation they lead. Peter Lawell and the board appear more care-takers than leaders. Of course there will always be times when caution and prudence are necessary. But failure to invest and build from a position of strength is unfathomable.
Mulumbu happening seemingly…
Also, what does strengthening from a position of strength mean? Realistically how is that consistently achievable – I mean sooner or later, unless you are talking about very small improvements every year, given the cyclical and unpredictable nature of football you’re going to have a period when that just isn’t possible?
And what about strengthening from a position of weakness, or the bit in the middle that I cant think of a world for? Doesn’t everyone look to strengthen from whatever positions they are in?
Further to Catman’s post, hearing it will be a row year deal for Mulumbu.
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!
Row = two
Keep the Faith!
Hail Hail!