If you were lucky enough, like me, to enjoy a long Christmas holiday, I hope you had a good one. I’m sure few of us are delighted to be back at it today but there’s an indisputable mood on the blog for bringing in the New. A fresh start is needed and fortunately we’re at the start of the transfer window.
For Celtic most attention will be directed towards recruiting a striker who is capable of doing the business in the Champions League, not to overlook the important point of doing the business in Champions League qualifiers. 20-year-old Icelandic striker, Holmbert Fridjobsson, finally joins the club this month but although we’ll hopefully see plenty of the player this month he is surely considered ‘one for the future’.
One prolific striker does not solve all of Celtic’s issues, however. The club remains acutely dependent on Kris Commons’ creativity (as well as goal scoring), which will become increasingly less-effective as opponents setup to inhibit him. He needs a foil.
Since the annihilation in Barcelona Celtic have offered greater protection from midfield but with both full backs encouraged to overlap the midfield anchor role, previously occupied by Wanyama, becomes crucially important. It also offers support to the strategy of allowing Commons a free role as an attacking midfielder.
Over the break, Archie MacPherson, Scotland’s greatest ever broadcaster, wrote an article for Celtic Quick News comparing two of Scotland’s greatest ever managers. These debates are, of course, subjective, but the article provides a few objective points for consideration. Archie has a totally unique range to deal with this question and is in no doubt as to who the master was. Look out for the article next week, you’ll enjoy it – no guessing now.
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JOE FILIPPIS HAIRCUT
True,but I think you may be missing the point of a blog….
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
06:42 on 7 January, 2014
twisty
I guess lenny alone cant decide who we sign since there are obviously financial constraints, and I don’t believe that big Peter makes that call himself either, therefore its probably a combination of fholks
one consideration though is that we need a number of established players and can afford a few prospects too. I don’t think we had that balance correct in the summer
too many hopefuls and not enough proven players for me
especially when I look at the available cash at that time
Think I’d agree that there is no single person at the club who determines whether a player is bought or not. In my mind, the budgets for one-off (tranfer fees) and ongoing spend (wages etc.) is decided at executive level and discussed/agreed with the football operation. There then is an exercise in determining the best way to spend those budgets given the needs of the team (though that’s probably quite obvious). After that it’s a case of looking at preferred options and going through a negotiantion with prospective candidates. In all of this there has to be an evaluation of whether value for money is being gained. I simply don’t believe that one person at Celtic decides to spend millions of £s unilatertally. It doesn’t happen in a business that is subject to keen governance – which Celtic is.
Kev
Paul McGowan……surely you mean Shane McGowan? :-)
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
06:18 on 7 January, 2014
The two things (giving the new signings a chance and subsequently them perhaps being not good enough) are not mutually exclusive. The fact that one side of the discussion was proved correct doesn’t make the other invalid.
I remember quite a few posters not being too enamoured of Hooper when he first signed given his price and background. Now it seems he’s a golden god and I don’t recall too many of them coming back to admit they were wrong.
As is endlessly discussed on here, every signing is a risk and people like their assertions to be correct. It’s what keeps discussion board entertaining.
KevJungle
09:10 on 7 January, 2014
Would tend to agree with you Kev (have I fallen down a wormhole into a parallel universe?!) on Pukki and Balde not yet having had a proper run in the team. I think Neil will stick with his current tactics until the league is wrapped up and then give these 2 players a run.
All the other stuff you said is rubbish. ;-)))
Sami off home to Greece to decide what to do next … final meeting today with Joe Ledley’s agent.
I don’t think we will see signings until these two are resolved one way or the other.
Joe Fillipi
Just catching up.
Absolutely bang on the other day regarding Mulgrews contribution and what it does for Commons’s game.
I haven’t seen Celtic play better in a long time.
HH
Teuchter
Just popped in.
Still undefeated, still moaning, another shut out, still moaning, lol, new year, same agenda, this unbeaten thingie is really taking it’s toll on moaners (mostly lurking Huns ) you know they are just so pizzed off at Neil and the Bhoys going great guns it’s eating them up inside, get used to it, I’m going to have to go to the hospital to get this smile off my face ;), oh and I noticed there was a development on resolution 12, so I read it and noticed there was no development, or did I miss something ? Lurking Huns, GIRUY.
Tamrabam.
It’s almost as if the criticism of failing to splash the cash on a established central defender, left back and goal keeper has evaporated into thin air.
4 summer signings on the bench on Sunday,is NL sending a message out?
Badabing.
I doubt they’d be on the bench if he was sending out a message.
Brrr!……It’s freezin’ here in Toronto. -23 with a windchill of -37 deg.
Just took Seamus out for a walk and he was tuggin’ on the leash – to get back in the hoose.
The wummin on the telly called it a “polar vortex”…fancy eh!
Wish I could go to Turkey.
Teuchter
4 summer signings on the bench, Celtic win 4-0 am I missing something here, if your struggling yes look to your bench, but when winning 4-0 , I don’t get it, seems any excuse for a moan is some in here’s agenda AGAIN, …….Tims?
Hard on the heels of startling revelations of cushy land deals and soft loans, FFers uncover the scandal which will inevitably leave Celtic holed below the water line:
“Another Example of [Celtic’s] And Scottish Footballs Corruption?
Is [Celtic]’s league record this season compared to last season, yet another example of the corruption in Scottish football?
In a league devoid of competition last season, they won the SPL with a record low points total and a record number of defeats.
Yet this season, despite having a much weaker team than last year, evidenced by their CL performances, where they qualified from their group last year, but finished bottom this year and their manager, fans and several players bemoaning the fact that they have lost their top scorer (Hooper), their best midfielder (Wanyama) and their best defender (Wilson), we are to believe that they have shown considerable domestic improvement.
[Celtic] – League Stats
2012/13…. P – 20 W – 12 D – 4 L – 4 F – 39 A – 15 GD +24 Pts 40
2013/14 ….P – 20 W – 17 D – 3 L – 0 F – 45 A – 12 GD +33 Pts 54
Surely their performances at the beginning of last season could have had nothing to do with the fact that Lieswell and Dumbcaster were flying down to London on a regular basis, trying to convince Sky that the SPL was still competitive, without [Sevco].
It was obviously just coincidence that once the deal with Sky was struck, they managed to put early season home defeats to ICT (1st time ever) and Killie (1st time in 40 years), as well as home draws to St Johnstone and Hibs behind them and win their next 12 home games easily, scoring 45 goals in the process.
To those wishing to point out that we have more points than last season, our team was strengthened by finally being allowed to sign players, not weakened like theirs.”
——
” Skullduggery always abound with these b*st*rds.
Rule nothing out where they are concerned.”
——
” Very interesting ….as its hard to believe all the rest have got much worse over such a short period of time.
Maybe also had to appease their support with more wins this season as attendances fall.”
——
“Their performances whilst the tv contracts were up for renewal, were stinking
Every time the points gap widened, they seemed to lose or draw the next game.
Without the challenge of their main rivals, you would have expected them to run away with the league last season, as they are doing this year, but with a considerably superior squad, they performed much worse.
I remember them losing 2 injury time goals, due to comical defending, to draw with Dundee Utd (in between a home defeat to Killie and a home draw to St Johnstone) and Lennon was on tv laughing about it.
Lennon is many unsavoury things, but he is also a winner. It was at that point that I felt that something wasn’t right.”
Phil’s latest
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/update-to-the-resolution-12-statement-of-19th-november-2013/
Monaghan 1900
If I supported a team which contained Ian Black and his questionable behaviour at the bookies I wouldn’t be alleging match fixing by another club.
Stupid Zombies.
Monaghan1900
10:11 on 7 January, 2014
Hard on the heels of startling revelations of cushy land deals and soft loans, FFers uncover the scandal which will inevitably leave Celtic holed below the water line:
“Another Example of [Celtic’s] And Scottish Footballs Corruption?
Is [Celtic]‘s league record this season compared to last season, yet another example of the corruption in Scottish football?
In a league devoid of competition last season, they won the SPL with a record low points total and a record number of defeats.
Yet this season, despite having a much weaker team than last year, evidenced by their CL performances, where they qualified from their group last year, but finished bottom this year and their manager, fans and several players bemoaning the fact that they have lost their top scorer (Hooper), their best midfielder (Wanyama) and their best defender (Wilson), we are to believe that they have shown considerable domestic improvement.
[Celtic] – League Stats
2012/13…. P – 20 W – 12 D – 4 L – 4 F – 39 A – 15 GD +24 Pts 40
2013/14 ….P – 20 W – 17 D – 3 L – 0 F – 45 A – 12 GD +33 Pts 54
Surely their performances at the beginning of last season could have had nothing to do with the fact that Lieswell and Dumbcaster were flying down to London on a regular basis, trying to convince Sky that the SPL was still competitive, without [Sevco].
It was obviously just coincidence that once the deal with Sky was struck, they managed to put early season home defeats to ICT (1st time ever) and Killie (1st time in 40 years), as well as home draws to St Johnstone and Hibs behind them and win their next 12 home games easily, scoring 45 goals in the process.
To those wishing to point out that we have more points than last season, our team was strengthened by finally being allowed to sign players, not weakened like theirs.”
——
” Skullduggery always abound with these b*st*rds.
Rule nothing out where they are concerned.”
——
” Very interesting ….as its hard to believe all the rest have got much worse over such a short period of time.
Maybe also had to appease their support with more wins this season as attendances fall.”
——
“Their performances whilst the tv contracts were up for renewal, were stinking
Every time the points gap widened, they seemed to lose or draw the next game.
Without the challenge of their main rivals, you would have expected them to run away with the league last season, as they are doing this year, but with a considerably superior squad, they performed much worse.
I remember them losing 2 injury time goals, due to comical defending, to draw with Dundee Utd (in between a home defeat to Killie and a home draw to St Johnstone) and Lennon was on tv laughing about it.
Lennon is many unsavoury things, but he is also a winner. It was at that point that I felt that something wasn’t right.”
Great stuff – they really are deluded. Black = white etc!
The last line is the best bit though – “Lennon is many unsavoury things…”
What could they mean? Is it the red hair? Is it the Irishness?
The one thing they have got absolutely right though – Lenny IS a winnner. As he proved many times when he gave them a RIGHT ROYAL HUMPING!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely loving their pain.
gerald766 @ 00.48 hrs.
The NHS and the people who work in it is still this country’s greatest achievement. It is truly amazing the workload they manage. Let us ensure that it is properly funded and be vigilant to stealth attacks.
On another note; ref ice cream names we could have Steven Cohen with Jelavic.
HH.
Didn’t think either Mulgrew or Stokes were having particularly good games on Sunday until they scored their goals.
After that Stokes especially was excellent.
Weeminger
as one of the chiefs from the “we cant afford a proven player” camp
how do you feel now that lenny himself is saying we can afford a proven player?
do you think we should have bought one at summer time or is there still 6 million excuses why we should have bought a handful of prospects instead?
all you board apologists out there too, if you still think that we are doing the right thing by signing 4 or 5 prospects instead of 1 or 2 established players, let us know why.
and let me know if these prospects are the answer to the empty seats (or should I say 52,000 attendances) of the past month or so
just so you all know, I am a believer in spend what you earn
HOWEVER im also a believer in increasing what we earn at the same time
and feel that spending what we earn, while earning less, is not really growing the business
the honest mistake
did you not know we needed a center forward?
the dugs in the street knew it
the mineshafters knew it
and probably the happy clappers knew it tae
just for clarity we still do and now that lenny himself has said it, it should be okay for all the happy clappers to say it too
Mrs Greenpinata asked “Why has the SAF autobiography got huge writing.”
HH.
My main worry with the squad is that our home grown kids are not getting a chance, the only guy who got a run is Darnell Fisher, Henderson got a bit of game time pre-season and Atajic got 5 or 10 minutes and got a great goal in that time. Lads like Marcus Fraser, Toshney, Chalmers, Herron, George, Twardzik and O’.Connell get occasional call ups to the bench but no game time. Guys like Dylan McGeouch and Tom Rogic have also disappeared from the radar. We are in a totally dominant League position, we will never get a better chance to blood players. Don’t get me wrong I love this winning run and want to keep it going but I think we could afford to go out with ten of our best and give one of the lads I mentioned a start in every SPFL game between now and end of season.
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
10:53 on
7 January, 2014
I’m not actually an advocate of any given policy. What I always try to do is understand what the board are doing and why without making too much of a judgement on whether it’s right or wrong.
What do you want me to say? Could signing a single £5-6M player worked out better? Of course it could. Equally it might not have.
Are you prepared to admit that we could have signed one, and he could have ruptured his cruciate in training and left us in a worse off position?
Nothing in the transfer business is without risk.
cork celt
for me the prospects that we should be using should be from the youths.
when we buy a player we should be buying an established or proven player
a player who will likely be a first teamer from the word go
not a teemu or a bangura or a murphy and so on
the “prospects” can be mainly from the youth set up
MON was widely criticised as a big spender, but he only signed 15 players
most of the 15 players went into the first time and stayed there
I think this policy would be better for the club and provide more opportunity for the youths too.
incidentally not everyone needs to be a 6 million quid signing. Commons is miles better than brown for example and I would have given the likes of mcginn/McGowan a Charlie mulgrew opportunity before some of the guys we paid over the odds for in the summer
I was watching the evening news last night and found it interesting when film of the Celtic players at Glasgow Airport for the flight toTurkey which as we know was canceled was shown.What interested me was there was Michael Lustig with the players so soon after his double hip operation and he didnt even appear to be limping modern surgery is indeed very clever at times.H.H.
weeminger
I am prepared to admit our star signing could have got injured
but im not prepared to admit that we shouldn’t sign them just in case they do
incidentally apologies when I read back I am too harsh on you and have a lot of time for your views. I want to make that clear
Joe Filippis Haircut,
Indeed; absolutely no criticism here but modern surgery the best money can buy.
HH
tamrabam
Good challenging post but I have my own answers to your question:-
“how do you feel now that lenny himself is saying we can afford a proven player?”
I feel good that we have the money saved to pay a slightly bigger fee in the transfer market should we choose to do so
Too often on CQN and other blogs, Celtic fans have let their imagination run away with them as they dissect the runes of the latest sayings of Neil Lennon and Peter Lawwell and will torture their prose until they decide that, at long last, these people see the light and are saying exactly the same as they have always said.
I cannot see that the situation at Celtic has changed any where to affect the overall strategy we are pursuing. Since every transfer strategy has flaws including the “buy one big instead of three small” that you espouse (much more exposed to negation by long term injury), then choosing to spend big now because you have built up a transfer fund via previous careful spending is a luxury you can afford because of your previous policy. It is a luxury tactic you can deploy to rectify problems in your previous buys, in this case the non-scoring or not-yet-ready forwards that we bought.
If for example, we had bought big to begin with and he had proved a dud or a long term injury (always a possibility as “proven goalscorer” has only proven that he scored with his past club(s) ) , then you would not be in a position to go again and risk all of your remaining money in replacing like with like . That is, you don’t get a 2nd chance to put it right by putting all your remaining funds into the one basket again of a £6m spend to replace the crocked or failing first big buy you made.
Anyway, it is all moot since Neil just said he could afford to buy big but did not promise he would. I worry that, if we do not now buy a Fletcher or a Finbogasson now, then we will be met with cries of “they promised us a big signing and did not deliver”
Let’s make it clear right now. Nobody at the club has said we will buy big only that we could if we chose to.
If we do land a big money signing to the club, I will welcome the player with open arms and wait to see how he performs for us on the pitch. I will not proclaim, “job done- we spent big- that is good enough for me!”
I’m Neil Lennon (tamrabam)
11:08 on
7 January, 2014
No need for apologies. This place is child’s play compared to some non-football boards I’ve frequented in the past.
For what it’s worth I don’t think the ‘star player’ method is any riskier long-term than the ‘buy a dozen eggs and hope one is golden’. I will say that it’s clearly not been a success in the striker department but I don’t think you can view it in isolation like that. It may be delivering profit overall (which should only be an aim if it’s to improve the team), and we’re successful on the pitch at the same time – just need to be a bit more exciting (a lot).
Tamrabam.
Everybody that follows celtic knew we needed a centre forward to replace gh. We brought in 2, it’s not worked out so far. Get over it.
Everybody that follows celtic knew we needed a centre half to replace kelvin Wilson. We brought in vvd, it worked out.
sftb
do you think the policy of signing 3 small for every 1 big player will help us to build a squad that can make a consistent CL challenge
do you think the policy of 3 small signings is likely to have at least 1 dud and maybe even 3 duds? if so does that cancel out the benefits (a bit like the injury to the star player)
you also mention we have the luxury of selling our small players who came good, vic and hoops. It might be the case that we could also sell our big signings too?
for me if we hadn’t sold our best players we wouldn’t have had much cash in the bank
so im not really cheering the policy of selling our best players and then not re investing it. (whether in 1 big or 3 small players)
I do have a fear that our stadium is getting emptier season after season for the past 10 years and I feel that our policy of searching for the lucky midgie doesn’t help
the honest mistake
get over it? okay then..
Tell tonydonnelly I’ve found his flag.
http://i44.tinypic.com/2q86bso.jpg
Tonydonnelly67
As I recall you said there would be no follow up. There was. The follow up did what was intended and the process moves on. You were wrong but remain churlish.
If you recall it was Celtic’s stance that the Res was unecessary. That has been questioned and as matters stand it has still not yet been proved unecessary to the satisfaction of all parties.
If it is not proved unecessary then that means it is necessary and it is the uncertainty that will keep the resolution going until it is proved one way or another.
There is a process underway here. It might be slow, it might not be as fully transparent as some would like but there are reasons for that (otherwise why would the statement not give chapter and verse) and if you are really interested in the issue rather than mocking it contact me via Paul.
weeminger
you touched on a very valid point about selling the best players since it delivers profit.
the particular problem at the summer was that we had a good profit from selling our best players and a last 16 place too. If we don’t re invest that profit then its probably not that helpful.
what do you think is the best way to get bums on seats next season at CP
Sign 2 biggies?
or sign 10 hopefuls?
or what?
perhaps nothing to do with signings even, but carrying on by
selling our best players
reducing or ST prices
doesn’t seem to be working that well and if we have a bummer against the likes or karagandy, the ball is well and truly up on the slates is it not?
Here is the update on Res12 referred to previously.
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/update-to-the-resolution-12-statement-of-19th-november-2013/
auldheid
11:25 on 7 January, 2014
There is no doubt questions needed to be asked…….and we should all be grateful to Canamalar, yourself etc…… I didn’t subscribe to the resolution, since I felt questioning the content etc was meeting a hostile reaction, but really pleased that progress is being made….