Two players arrived during this transfer window: Rami Gershon and Tom Rogic, with no first team players leaving the club. I don’t know what Neil has planned for Rami but his loan deal and stats at Standard Liege suggests he is here as cover. I expect to see as much of him as we saw of Pawel Brozek last season.
20-year-old Tom Rogic is different. He joins the club on the same runway as Victor Wanyama, Beram Kayal, Adam Matthews, Mikael Lustig and Emilio Izaguirre. I’ve refused to watch his YouTube clips but there is every reason to hope he will be as successful a recruit as our other recent acquisitions of a similar profile.
I’ve been banging on about Asset Management for years. The mantra being – they all have their price and if any club fails to grasp this reality they will underachieve. Against this backdrop, Gary Hooper will either sign a new contract in the coming weeks or there is a good chance he will leave for nothing when his contract expires in June 2014.
A fundamental problem prevented a deal being done for Gary last month. His value to Celtic, not necessarily in this season’s Champions League, but in the same tournament’s qualifiers in July and August, is far greater than his value to any suitor. In other words, his value as an asset is not measured by transfer fee alone. This squad should have enough to reach the Champions League group stages next season, worth the best part of £20m to Celtic. Any deals have to be measured against this target.
The kind of transfer decision Celtic made yesterday, a profitable club holding onto a player and at the risk of losing him leaving for free, is so much healthier than the scenario we previously faced, in an arms race with a rival who was prepared to spend money they could not afford in order to beat us. What a mistake that whole ‘Old Firm’ thing was. Glad to see the back of it.
The ‘big clubs’ in England didn’t come looking for Gary. Instead, a well-run club made several attempts to acquire a good player on a price appropriate for their income. No harm in that, you have to give Norwich the respect any yokel deserves trying to hook up with a beauty queen (nothing implied about people from Norwich, or Gary as a queen!).
There is no guarantee the same club will be playing top-flight football when he becomes available, or that a club with a greater income, or with a more flamboyant approach to spending, will move for him, so there is every chance that Gary and his new agent will figure out that an extra year on his Celtic contract for a hefty wage rise is a decent option.
There is an interesting side plot to the Hooper non-transfer. Victor Wanyama is sitting on an offer of a substantial wage increase to extend his contract from 2015 to 2016. Unless someone comes in with an offer greater than his value to Celtic in Champions League campaigns he’ll be here until 2015.
Chances of both players signing new contracts in the coming months has to be a wee bit higher today. All those meaningless scripts about Celtic being a selling club floating around various places will have to be shelved for another time. We are a selling club, but only at the right price and the right time, just as it should be.
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Have the ones that are watching the beamback trashed Ibrox yet?
Whits that the DU fans are singing
2/1 for Utd half time/full time, bookies were giving money away!
steak bake must stay.
Guy on Sky. “Ian Black has still to score for Rangers in fact his last goal was against Rangers” Chuckled me off ma chair that did!! 0) o) o) o) o) o)
From twitter for those going to the game.
Kirkcaldy Police@KirkcaldyPolice
Arrive in plenty time for tomorrows match. All turnstiles will be open but it will still take some time to get everyone in. #footballsafety
They’ll be boycotting corner flegs noo.
They’re all agin us!
S
Feel sorry for those 350 huns who boycotted the boycott :O)
Take it on the chins Sally…
Got to question Lee Wallace in the Scotland squad…
Lol
Shortbread’s *rse is making buttons!
Naismith
sent aff
Oh what a perfect day………
25/1 Johnny hat-trick. C’mon son, put the effort in… Shoot from anywhere!
Sally got a world record of going out cup comps in shortest time period ?
There’s yer red…
Straight red for Kal (sp?) Naismith
S
You Bhoys with a red card bet???
Yeehaaaa
Naissmith OFF foulon Willo Flood
Zombie off, hahahaha!
5 booked and 1 sent off and beat 3-0
And a red for sevconian Naismith….! :-)))))
How’s the bets looking bhoys?
T4
Just turned on the United match about five minutes ago.
The first thing I see is Derek Johnstone playing at right-back for Sevco.
It’s really is a grave situation for the Zombies right enough.
Beautiful stuff…..they are proven to be utter shoite…….just wish Utd hadn’t been so careful early in the second half….
Red card – need another for a 33/1 shot – c’mon the MIB!
Red card currants
Bookies no’ daft
Newco, the gift that just keeps on giving.
huns to lose, huns to have a red card. 2 bets home, thank you stupid huns.
Headlines now wil be “Plucky 10 -men Rangers go out”
Away to stitch up my sides
Reverting to type. Typical huns…
Typical hun foul,red card.
Shame game AGAIN
Kal?
Is that short for Kalamity?!
Go home ya….
HH!!
Waaaah
:)))))))
How absolutely gutted must Motherwell fans be. Everyone in Scotish football knows the deadybears are crap but still when they play them they roll over and have their tummies tickled, even to the extent of their own players smiling and congratulating the newco Huns on the win. Stuart McCall you should hang youir head in shame.