Our two loan signings on the final day of the transfer window, Jota and Cameron Carter-Vickers, have been crucial to the (presumptive) outcome of the league title, the latter more so than the former; Cameron could easily have won Player of the Year. Despite this, it is Jota who is the more important to secure on a permanent deal.
Having watched Newco suffocate our midfield twice in a month and Bodo/Glimt do the same earlier in the year, to the extent that we struggled to build periods of possession, never mind attacks, we need to answer the question, why was this?
When our central defenders have the ball, they face options of either trying to find a full back or Callum McGregor, or hope that someone further up field is in space. Those options were snuffed out by Newco, causing a nervousness as players took possession with an opponent breathing down his neck.
What would Kristoffer do?
Kristoffer Ajer would step forward with the ball, drawing opponents off their markers and immediately creating space. He could then play a short pass or, if he was not challenged, continue a run through the middle.
It is reasonable to claim Celtic have the best two central defenders in the league, even the previously maligned Carl Starfelt is a model of solidity. The problem is, neither can carry the ball forward as effectively as Kris Ajer. We need at least one central defender with this attribute, preferably two.
Ange Postecoglou is not going to change the way we play. Next season you will see our central defenders in possession looking at man-marked team-mates. We either address an identifiable problem, or we are in for more of the same.
The first job of a defender is to defend, and we all remember the shambles of last season, even with Kris, but despite my fondness for Cameron and Carl in this respect, we need a rethink.
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jota is the most talented footballer we have at CP at the moment- yes – more talented than Kyogo- and I am delighted if we get a chance to sign him
CCV has proved to be a more than competent CB at our level and would be a sorer miss if we don’t get him, as we currently lack anyone close to his ability in that position. Jota has substitutes in Abada, Maeda, Forrest, Johnston and Dembele who are only one or one and a half rungs lower on the talent ladder. Starfelt, while finishing the season well, is not as comfortable or as good as CCV for us (though playing left side may make him look even more awkward than he is). Young Welsh is a promising bhoy but he has not looked an effective sub, even for Starfelt. Jullien has shown no desire to get back in our team and I strongly suspect, has indicated he wants to leave. Nir Bitton is never a CB.
So, if CCV leaves and Jullien leaves, I think 3 CBs for next season will need to be recruited. We might get one from the B team- Bosun Lawal or Dane Murray but we will need to buy two senior CBs to help Carl out.
We landed lucky with injuries this year. We had substantive cover for all positions but CB. We could have lost this league had either CS or CCV had a long term injury. Neither Welsh or an unwilling Jullien could have given us as much as our two reliable CBs did.
I want Jota more but I value CCV for our team more than I do Jota, unless there are CBs out there that can do what CCV does. I see none in Scotland that I would want.
On another subject, we have had not had the stories of discontent and list of ‘wantaways’ this season.
We have several players who can’t get a game but there has been radio silence .
As a result, we have no idea where Jullien’s head is at, Ajeti’s plans etc
Did we have a ‘leaker’ under Lennon who has left or was the lack of discipline in the player’s comms to the press/pals etc caused by Lennon calling them out on TV as agitating for a move or not being fit enough etc?
Things were pretty tight under Rodgers until the spat with Dembele and Boyata but I have seldom seen such a quiet season in terms of rumours
Not sure why people are making this differentiation but in today’s game proper CHs can play with the ball at their feet. It’s how the game has evolved and not an outlier. Maybe some of our thinking is still stuck.
Improving those at CH and LB will then expose another link in Ange’s play – how ill-suited Joe Hart is to playing the ball out. One to watch. No idea if it’s a priority this summer or not.
No sentimentality Ange.
HH
Two pages in and no mention of whether Welsh is expected to play regularly? Ange ok’d a new 4-year contract, no?
Not to fussed about a CB who can run up the pitch with ball.cant think of too many in the game anyway.CCV is excellent at defending..he is also very comfortable on the ball and throws in the odd important goal.
Instead of buying an attacking CB maybe we could expand and vary our movement further up field so that we have more and better options for those trying to play out from the back.
We should by both players if possible.we’ve got the cash.have we got the ambition?
Buy
The link will be made and we’ve been there before, but 2 young breakthrough CHs at Man City, Luke Mbete & Conrad Egan Riley would be terrific additions…late teens, tall, ball players.
I’m also hoping we get Bosun Lawal close to the first team next year (taking Stephen Welsh’s spot imho).
I trust the club to find a solution if CCV doesn’t come.
HH
Drew1967,
You might not be fussed but I suspect Ange is. When man to man marking on our midfield we need another outlet and it makes sense we have an Ajer type to break through the lines.
HH
DENIABHOY on 5TH MAY 2022 2:12 PM
Two pages in and no mention of whether Welsh is expected to play regularly? Ange ok’d a new 4-year contract, no?
—
I’d sell him to Udinese for the purported £1.6m
HH
Article directly contradicts my desire to keep the more old-fashioned but – to my eyes – more reliable player. Brought it up several times but no-one’s bitten – CCV is so reliable we easy forget how good that makes him. Count how many stinkers he’s had… not many.
Twenty-four is the perfect age for a CB and I think he’s positionally/defensively way better than Master Ajer.
His agents will be reminding him of that fact and, yep, this feels a lot like a softening up piece.
Jota has delighted me, too, with his appetite – Mikey J should learn a thing or two if he’s not an early name for the taxi list.
The lad Ben Davies has had good game time at Sheffield Utd on loan this season (22 games). Left sided and maybe we go back for him in Liverpool don’t want him.
He was scouted under our previous regime so that would count against him but it’s a thought
Why are so many talking about a £20m transfer budget? This came from the Daily Record for feck sake. Not one person from Celtic has spoken about any level of potential spending. Not even Ange.
If Celtic’s buy/sell deficit this summer is less than £20m, these pages will be full of posters slaughtering the club for going back on their word, while that scummy rag’s editorial staff raise a glass and laugh at us.
Nothing surer.
if we persist with ball played out from the back then we definitely need a goalkeeper .
Follow the money
As we have evidence of the disparities in salaries between Celtic and EPL teams Duffy, Christie, Eduoard, Ajer, we have to be aware that we cannot match or even get close. CCV is reported to be interesting several EPL teams. Probably 25k a week or up to 100k a week. What would you take?
Not so sure that its the breaking forward with the ball that’s the issue. Neither seem capable of playing a 25/30 yard pass.
Julien is a better centre half that the 2 of them and from what I have seen of him, Goldson is better than Startfelt.
Daniel Levy is also taking the piss with his valuation of CCV.
Pay over the odds or spend your money more wisely elsewhere.
The EPL are not paying big bucks for a CCV in a couple of seasons so no resale value, which is bonkers for a club like ours.
HH
Big Wavy
Cool mate
Cant think of many of the succesful teams out there who have the type of player you suspect Ange wants.CCV when he does move forward with the ball is comfortable and is a very good passer aswell.improved movement further up the field is more important IMO.
Hail Hail brother
The last 2 Huns games have shown that we’ll need to improve against them next season.
More of the same won’t do, something needs to change and with an early game at Celtic Park setting the tone, we’ll need to do it quickly
I can see the logic in looking for a player who helps us do that to replace a player who doesn’t offer much offensively.
A good win at CP is a must
Seattle resoundingly win CONCACAF Champions League Final and get automatic entry into the next FIFA Club World Cup. They will be the first MLS club to do so.
Celtic to play Blackburn & Norwich in pre-season friendlies at Celtic Park.
Both will be on the Season Ticket.
I think Celtic is CCV seventh loan club.Some club down south will pay over the top for him,maybe Southampton or one of the newly promoted clubs,either way not to concerned.
Lets get the team closer together on the park too many huge spaces.Found out in Europe.
Now this is just my opinion.
Huns next season will be unrecognisable to the one we’ve played recently…
McGregor, Goldson, Ramsey, Arfield, Davis, Balogun and Diallo all out of contract in a month.
“cash cows” Kent, Morelos, Aribo, Jack and Helander 6 months away from agreeing a free with another club.
That’s 12 first team players.
They have come to an end of their cycle and it’ll be a GVB team next season, with an injury-prone CH on a free their only incoming so far. Let’s see how their rebuild goes.
HH
Paul 67
Funny why you should say that?
Wouldn’t prioritise one or the other, we need them both and very highly unlikely IMO if you know Celtic that they’ll buy to replace Carl Starfelt with whom a solid title winning partnership has been formed. A lot will depend on whether they’ll allow Jullien to run down his contract, or offload as he can’t appear to make a challenge for the jersey, and AP quite rightly prefers his own men.
Jota’s loan was with an option to buy and unless the player and Benfica renege on the contract option, then we should be signing him as well. I like my CB’s to defend, block and clear the ball whichever way they’re facing if needs be, give me CB’s that will improve our Euro record.
Gary Caldwell and Charlie Mulgrew were ball playing CB’s, …..just saying.
It’s all about recruitment not how much we spend.
Ive seen Welsh and Ralston on a few ‘ drive him to the airport ‘ lists,we are going to need a bigger squad than we currently have next season……
CELTIC40ME on 5TH MAY 2022 3:05 PM
I agree . Even the 3-0 game , satisfying as it was , didn’t really feel like it laid down a marker , given the way the two subsequent games went v them .
Ange has worked wonders in a short space of time but our aim domestically should be to be consistently better than them , something I feel we have yet to demonstrate .
INIQUITOUSIV
Delighted for Sounders. Used to watch them when I lived near Seattle 2001-2003.
Bada,
A better managed club would replace both with younger and better, ideally succession planning from the B team. Ralston is approaching 24 and Welsh 23.
Familiar faces feels seductive but not how we build a better squad.
imho.
HH
Dear Lord,this place at times.
CCV,one of the standouts of the season,tipped by many as POTY,now,h,mmm,we could get better.Clueless drivel.We could get better for 3 or 4 million.Oh really?.And these guys accuse the Board of being tight fisted.Could not make it up.Want to break up a winning team,and quite a few don’t even like Jullien !!!!!!.
The problem is not the players.Its the fans that think they know better than Celtic..If CCV wants to sign,Ange will have him signed up in a minute same with Jota.Unless of course any from here have his ear on where he is going wrong.
I don’t like the sound of that !!!…..a stand out an absolute rock…..sometimes its the Midfield 3 that aren’t performing especially losing 50/50s and sometimes even 40/60s a lot of the time !!!…give me CCV over Ajer any day of the week …..I like my defenders not to be afraid!!!!
Tom MX Laughlin,
Said the very same thing earlier about the “20 million”.For a support that dont read or pay attention to the Media,they like to quote them as fact.
!!BADA BING!! @ 3.27
The ole CQN Escape goats ?
GLENDALYSTONSILS on 5TH MAY 2022 3:31 PM
Even given the context – a Celtic park full of screaming Tims under the floodlights – I think we shocked GVB and the Huns at how much better we were than them, even how easily we dealt with them in the second half.
But their Euro run shows how good they are at nullifying better teams and that’s what they’ve done, gradually, since then.
I don’t think we’re a long way from being consistently & clearly better but we need a solution to a very obvious problem. More of the same won’t do, we’d need to keep progressing
I do think given where we’ve come from to where we are its a relatively minor issue.
Multi monikered Victor Meldrews on here today :-)
I don’t believe it
Now for something completely different!!!
The atmosphere inside Ibrox tonight will be claustrophobic, intense and just as febrile and intimidating as Belgrade, Dortmund or, the Bernabeu
Leipzig are new to this European arena and have no pedigree as such. Was that the reason, as some are suggesting, that Man City, despite having control for most of the game, and leading by two goals in the 89th minute, finally succumbed to Real….was there an inevitability about it?
From what I’ve seen of the Germans, I have serious doubts if they can withstand a full-frontal onslaught tonight, although previous rounds’ away form says different. I would not bet against The Rangers going through. First goal is always crucial to the shape of the game – much more so tonight.
If they do get to the final, will it take the shine off our title? Certainly not, but we will be acutely aware. It will be the top media story for the rest of this season. Imagine if it did happen and we weren’t Champion’s Elect…..there’s a thought!
On the other hand, if they do go out tonight, I would have doubts about their ability to win the SC.
One of the guys I go to games with served as an apprentice at Arbroath FC under Danny McGrain. In the pub in Edinburgh after last Sunday’s game we were talking about pundits who were quite fair when it came to Celtic.
Michael Stewart and Richard Foster were mentioned. Someone also name-checked Gordon Dalziel. The guy who worked for Danny McGrain strongly disagreed. He told us how one of his pals at Arbroath had been transferred to Ayr United before Dalziel got the manager’s job.
When Dalziel took over the reins at Somerset Park he allegedly made this guy’s life an absolute misery, all because he was a Celtic supporter. I am told he was regularly ridiculed with words like taig and fenian in front of other players.
I have no reason to disbelieve this guy.
CCV POTY for me as far as him staying have absolutely no impact on that regards KA a few short memories on here regarding his inability to defend