I know what you’re thinking, let’s hope we get more exciting January signings like Pawel Brozek, Rabiu Ibrahim and Freddie Ljungberg.
It’s slightly unfair to mock our January transfer business. Kris Commons arrived two years ago and constituted a one man title challenge for a few months (and still delights). Georgios Samaras and Barry Robson arrived in 2008 and went a long way to ensuring the title came to Celtic. We went signing crazy in January (and 1st Feb) 2010 when Robbie Keane, Diomansy Kamara and soon-to-be World Cup final legend…. Edson Braafheid arrived. Robbie proved his class but it was all in vain, alas.
Most of our worries seem to be focussed on protecting those already in the squad. I’m not too concerned one way or another for the Juventus tie, which will take care of itself, but decisions made today will need to consider the Champions League qualifier challenges we will face in August. If we sell Gary Hooper today there is no guarantee we will be able to recruit his replacement until the final gasp of the August window.
So far this month we have addressed long-term strategy and short-term cover, if we do any more business I’d be happy with more of the same.
Contrary to career expectations 29-year-old Edson Braafheid is not now a delivery driver for Argos but he’s not playing a lot of football these days either.
If the server overheats later I’m on Twitter, @CQN, and I’ll do my best to figure out Facebook, CQN Magazine, too.
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Surly with leagues merging it will leave some of the good ole boys without jobs? I imagine that will cause a bit of (knuckle) feet dragging. No chance it will be in place for next season. So impartial David (of the rangers supporting family) Longmuire will be vexed and set for an unhappy household again next season. shame. ; )
KLV
kevinlasvegas
macjay1
Vhman
I counted back just before Christmas and there had only been 3 assists from central midfield, thats not good enough. Watched while we were chasing the game last week Scott Brown recieved the ball in plenty of space and side passed it to Chico Muldini, who went to try and create, thats just wrong.
SPL assists so far this season.
Adam Matthews 8
Charlie Mulgrew 6
Gary Hooper 4
Georgios Samaras 4
Kris Commons 4
Scott Brown 4
From 52 goals scored.
Close down this Celtic team on the wing and they are beat and the manager has no alternative idea.
EN
Well not a bad Night. HOOPS and Wan the Man stay and we now have two Victors.
Given that Harald is now a pilot I think the new goalie has the ideal name for a Nordic Noir thriller writer.
1 more comment and we hit the excellent Stephen king short story 1408.
KLV
kevinlasvegas,
i would think the figure is nearer 80% than 95%, but your point still stands.
Jungle Jim
07:37 on 1 February, 2013
Confession is good for the soul.
Assuming,of course,that we have one.
;-)
Where are they now?
David Edgar.
Anyone?
Estadio, i knew it would be low, Excellent stats mate. Our sets pieces had been getting better of late, But on the whole or corners have been pretty bad. The Killie game was easy because we started pinging the ball and trying shots which is more likely to create a goal than the arsenal approach we try week in week out against 12 men defences. If we shot more, a creative mid wouldn’t be a problem. Just my opinion.
KLV
Morning all from a dull(ish) NW Italian coastal location! 12 degrees.
Fish market later – it’s Friday!
No last minute signing for us – no surprise there then.
No departures either thankfully.
Chharliebhoy – best wishes to you and yours.
HH!!
I never get ‘assists’. Do they mean the last person to touch the ball before the scorer?
When is it worthy of being an assist and not?
Morning,
Why was Fat Sally at Hampden yesterday in regard to League Reconstruction?
Sevco do not even have a vote and to send your football manager?
Whispering in a few ears I take it…
Hoopy do i hope your right, Maybe one of the Bhoys on here might have the stat for that. I live in Airdrie and work in East Kilbride my guess is very conservative.
KLV
Zimmerman, Jobo,
your poetic ‘good morning’ greetings might just have invented a game to pass away friday morning in work.
I will now try to think of other similar greeting that could be used.
Here’s 2 for starters:-
Good Morning from Farty Barty (Dumbarton)
Good Morning from Mundane Dunblane
This will keep me amused for hours.
asonofdan got it in one, getting the drink orders in for last night real meeting. ; ). will it be questioned today by the rags? Naa
KLV
Is Farty Barty not out of Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy. ; )
KLV
Estadio Nacional
07:39 on 1 February, 2013
Can`t argue with your ( lies,damned lies and) statistics.
As far as our current personnel are concerned,you want to twist.
I`m happy to stick.
A “work in progress” is the horrible cliche that sums it up for me.
I like the road we are on and I have no wish to rush.
Lenny needs to learn how to progress.
He needs time and ,to my mind,has earned the right to expect our patience.
Tactics from me.
More ” Give and go.”
Without wee Forrest,that seldom happens.
In the meantime,the bus is parked while we fanny about.
up_over_goal 07:30
Playmaker – Someone who looks ahead looking to create.
EN
KLV
After the last census (2011) it was shown that Scotland was nominally 42% Church of Scotland. The Wine Grapes came in second at 16%. (There were 7% ‘other’ Christians). Sooooooo the initial figures of 95%, or even 80% Protestant were way too high.
A person’s religion is,of course, his or her own business. In the world of Scottish football I don’t think that religion is necessarily an influencing point – it’s more to do with the malign influence that a Deid Club can still have behind closed doors, an assumption of continuing right and superiority, if you get my drift.
EN
Looks ahead – check. Looking to create – check.
I make that everybody.
Except Kelvin Wilson.
Let the whispering campaign begin. Almost-aptly named lawyers leaking opinions of judgement:
“But Record Sport understands there will be no rush to announce Rangers’ fate and Lord Nimmo Smith told both parties yesterday he is unlikely to be in a position to tell them his decision this week or next.
A close source said: “It appears we are talking weeks rather than days for the final decision.
“Lord Nimmo Smith has a lot of evidence and submissions to go through and also has to examine the SPL rulebook. These are serious allegations and he will not be rushed.”
We also understand that Biggart Baillie, the lawyers representing Rangers oldco, are quietly
confident of securing a positive outcome.
They believe the findings of the first-tier tax tribunal – which cleared Rangers of cooking the books – has significantly weakened the case against the club.
They believe their case is so solid they did not require “star witnesses” including Murray and former director Mike McGill to give evidence.
Current Rangers chief Charles Green has refused to take any part in the proceedings. Last night the SPL released a statement that said: “The independent commission has heard evidence and submissions and will issue a full written decision in due course.”
Thanks EmeraldBee. Nice one sir.Great stats. Love this site. ; )
KLV
DeniaBhoy
08:04 on
1 February, 2013
We also understand that Biggart Baillie, the lawyers representing Rangers oldco, are quietly
confident of securing a positive outcome.
They believe the findings of the first-tier tax tribunal – which cleared Rangers of cooking the books – has significantly weakened the case against the club.
They believe their case is so solid they did not require “star witnesses” including Murray and former director Mike McGill to give evidence.
The above statement is the commercial reality of requiring to sell newspapers to your target moron audience
Bigot Ballie apt name for their lawyer. ; )
KLV
Billy Dodds believes boycott harms Rangers’ chance of cup victory
Graeme Macpherson
Football Writer
Friday 1 February 2013
United are favourites to win and although they beat Rangers 2-1 last March that’s not something that has been uttered about this fixture for quite some time.
No capiche.
No comprende.
No entiendo.
OR………YE PRAAT KAK.
Neil Lennon has praised Celtic’s board for resisting numerous offers for Gary Hooper and also confirmed he tried to sign Wolves striker Kevin Doyle before the transfer window closed.
Hooper was the subject of several bids from Norwich City during January, but the Premier League club failed to persuade the SPL champions to sell.
Lennon had been determined to keep Hooper ahead of this month’s UEFA Champions League tie against Juventus and is delighted the striker is still at Parkhead.
The Celtic boss told Sky Sports News: “I think we made our stance pretty clear.
“I don’t think a lot of people believed us but we want to keep this team together for the foreseeable future.
“Gary is a huge part of that and I’m very grateful to the board for standing by our decision on that.
The Transfer Centre
.
“We look forward to a great second half to the season now.”
Lennon also revealed his interest in signing Doyle, with Wolves confirming an offer for the Republic of Ireland international was rejected shortly before the window closed.
He added: “He is a player we have admired for a long time but Wolves were steadfast, like we’ve been, so we obviously respect that.
“They feel Kevin is a very important player there and it just wasn’t to be.”
What a croc!
The FTT did not clear RFC of cooking the books. There is a vast difference between successfully destroying evidence and ‘not cooking the books’.
Everyone knows that the shredders have been working overtime.
Also, there is a certain risk of putting star witnesses on the stand. They may just have to face a few difficult questions and disclose more than they’d like.
The Scottish legal system has the “not proven” verdict.
Methinks the FTT outcome was ‘not proven’ rather than ‘not guilty’.
lionsroar your statement is true but it doesn’t make it any easier to swallow my friend, the lies are far too many and vast in this horrible wee country. They print anything they read it and we get angry at the lies seems to be the pattern and even when the truth comes out its still ignored. Now the findings are complete i fear behind closed doors they will be edited. Hope I’m wrong.
KLV
lionroar67 – absolutely spot on. It’s garbage. But it’s calculated garbage that will form part of a concerted campaign to influence a decision that has not yet been made. It should have no impact but it won’t stop them trying.
Although living in Spain, I scan the stories of most of the British papers each morning (used to be part of my job so it’s a habit more than anything else). Lowest of the low for journalism today goes to the Sun screaming that Ambrose will be having sex with prostitutes if his team progresses in the Africas Cup. Absolute made up, utter tosh which has nothing to do with Ambrose whatsoever. It is on the level of Sunday Sport exclusives from the 80s.
Mea Culpa FTT has to be unanimous i think and 2 of the 3 said guilty and the 3rd couldn’t decide.
KLV
I have a newspaper app, after having a quick look, it is obvious Jabba is still running the agenda at the Daily Record and feeding them their stories.
Disgusting rag…
Daily Record doing what is required ….whispering campaign is right …won’t affect the outcome ..but they’ll try
They are also playing to their target audience …they have to be seeing to have helped when it goes all ends up
I find their pathetic attempts at last century Masonic influencing to be quite amusing
We’re the famous Glasgow Rangers…naw yer no they’re deed
Well it’s pouring in the Chilterns, I’ve got to say the percipitation of the negative ions makes a nice fresh start to the day…
Glad all the bhoys stayed.
Football Focus said last night tha Norwch had bid £9M for Hooper.
Lenny stood firm and the Board must have backed him.
This is the most solid signal Celtic have made in a long time that they are serious about contending with the best in Europe.
It’s a grand new team.
Good morning CQNers,
Estadio Nacional, absolutely, a play-maker is someone who passes the ball into a SPACE that wrongfoots defenders and affords the attacker an opportunity.
The cardigan always set up his team to neutralise our full backs and push up on our 5-touch centre backs.
If you review our cup defeats you’ll see very similar tactics being deployed and I’m sure Juventus will also adopt something similar.
macjay1 for Neil Lennon @ 07:20
Creativity is a luxury we cannot currently afford.
Productivity will have to do in the meantime.
………….
I couldn’t disagree more I’m afraid, we should never settle for the dreary and tedious mantra of the modern world where the talentless rule.
Charliebhoy, may God bless you and your family.
Mornin CQNrs
From a glorious glad Glasgow – awnaw it does nae rhyme.
Maybe from great gray Glesgae ! -naw that disnae rhyme either!
Listened to last minute deals re transfer window, all a bit dull and only totally underwhelmed by PSG making a footballing fool of themselves.
Besides the rumour mill 7m for hoops sounded like a productive piece of business, I hope he proves me wrong.
HH
googybhoy ♥ Celtic
07:14 on
1 February, 2013
Did Sevco vote against their own proposal. Interesting from Phil.
http://www.philmacgiollabhain.ie/cometh-the-hour-cometh-the-man/#more-3526
I could almost feel a tad sorry for Sally……………NAHHHH sleekit bassa.
morning all,hh.
Big Victor arriving at CP last night.
http://www.snspix.com/8352024/print/8352024.html
Looks a no nonsense kidda guy, just what we need in goals after bombscare’s last couple of performances .
Wonder if he’ll be unveiled later today?
HH
/Bishop B
KLV
And of course, the UTT may just overturn the FTT decision anyway.
I wonder how many funny handshakes will have been used to influence the outcomes…?
Mea Culpa i think the appeal has been moved to london if i heard right, So out not so many brothers done there, but we’ll see, my guts tell me that too much money is at stake for hmrc not to win, I’m actually surprised sevco won first time round. The tax authorities make things to suit themselves.
KLV