I see a bit of chat on Liel Abada in the Latest News section of CQN this morning. I have been impressed with the player from his early outings last year. Although a winger with a prodigious assists record, it is his ability inside the box that impresses most.
He understands when to arrive in the danger area and has the speed and touch to be effective once there. With the right tutelage, I think he may end up as a striker – you will recall, the Great Swede played on the wing until arriving in Glasgow as a 26-year-old, when an opportunity opened to play through the middle.
I sense little resistance to the potential sale of Josip Juranovic. He had a stellar World Cup, at 27 he is in his prime and we have already recruited a replacement. There is less unanimity when it comes to Giorgos Giakoumakis. Gio is enormously popular and brings a different threat to any other striker at the club. However, at 28, we know the script. His age profile and backup status mean that he is available for the right price.
Liel does not always make the starting 11 but he would if I was picking the team. His age and contract profile are such that we are under no pressure to sell. But I need to ask myself what I really want from Celtic and how to get there.
I want us to be a competitive Champions League team, not the cannon fodder we were this season. To get there, we need an excellent recruitment regime and an aggressive trading policy. I’ll back any plan that aims for this target, anything else is conservative and unambitious – I don’t know about you, but I’m neither.
833 Comments- Pages:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- ...
- 22
- »
Merry Christmas One and All
Wherever you VAR
Ach well might as well go for a Hat Trick
Thats it im off to Spoons for a Clootie Dumpling Ale from the Orkney Brewery
In Ange we trust
Can anyone else join in?
Abada looked like a striker, in the games we were forced to play him through the middle this time last year, i think he got a hat trick v St Johnstone, and terrorised their CBs
Nope😂
Paul 67,
The prize for winning our domestic league is the privilege of playing in the Champions league, the biggest show in town.
We need to be competitive and believe we belong. I think this realitive new found aspiration is capturing the masses as the bigger picture dawns.
Never again should domestic football triumph over European football and let’s finally bin the old mantra of dropping players in Europe to save them for a domestic game .
We must do whatever is necessary to achieve our European aspiration.
Hail, hail.
PB @ 12.19. Spoilsport.
It’s Christmas. 😂😂
“Cannon Fodder”,,,bit harsh Paul
Good article
Can only hope ‘aggressive trading policy’ doesn’t become selling players after a single season and ruining any momentum we may be building.
We may need to slow down that revolving door
Wouldn’t be too fussed about GG leaving. We need a more instinctive CF and that would make him third choice.
Definitely shouldn’t be selling Abada though. Disagree about him becoming a central striker. His strength is timing his runs into the middle from wide when play is developing down the other side. Start him centrally and you lose that. Football has changed a bit since the days of Larsson. Liverpool’s goals mostly came from their wide forwards (before they lost Mane at least). Man City won two titles without a regular CF.
What we do lack is a goalscoring MF in the Armstrong mould.
Well I’m in shock to learn that P67 is not conservative and unambitious. Practically everything he writes would suggest otherwise. Which is fine of course.
Merry Christmas to all fellow Tims 🎄
If we have a replacement for GG then thanks for the memories big man. However, if not then a little bonus to keep him happy until he goes in the summer?
Abada – no doubt he’ll go at some point but he is too valuable to lose right now.
anything else is conservative and unambitious – I don’t know about you, but I’m neither.”
—————————
Great to hear! Obviously changed days since everything being about domestic football and Neil Lennon being a great appointment…..
For me Abada should be the first name on the team sheet. I believe he is our biggest attacking threat, both as creator and executioner. Even more so than Jota.
Giako should also be starting ahead of Kyogo when we’re faced with packed SPL defences. His ability to be where he needs to be in a packed penalty area, and to engineer an attempt on goal with any part of his body, whichever way he is facing, is crucial of we are to improve on our recent 1:10+ short conversion ratio.
Kyogo certainly has his merits, not least his anticipation and speed of thought and movement, but that is too often of reduced benefit against packed defences. He needs space to attack, so he is most effective against teams such as them, or European teams, who are more likely to try to play more expansively and leave that space at the back for Kyogo to exploit.
My starting XI for tomorrow (subject to availability) would be:
Hart (or maybe even give Siegrist a run out)
Ralston if fit, or Taylor
CV
Starfleet
Bernabei (Taylor if Ralston fit)
Mooy
McGregor
Abada
O’Reilly
Haksa
Giako
“if we are to improve on our recent 1:10+ shot conversion ratio”
(auto-incorrect!)
Parkheadcumsalford
Dead ball line
Another difficult game tomorrow against Saints who are unbeaten in the last six games, and they dumped Sevco with two fine goals. It could be a Christmas cracker, and surely even by the law of averages no VAR intrusions?
With much more of an away goal threat than Livi Celtic will miss Anthony Ralston if he doesn’t make it, and after Greg Taylor’s second half on the wrong flank, Ange might consider other options.
Would like to see Turnbull or Mooy start with GG up top, Jota hasn’t kicked on with the new moustache and think Abada scores despite playing out of position wide right.
James Forrest could do a James Milner on the right flank? But reckon Bernabei will start with Taylor moving over again. Don’t care if we win it early, as long as we win it.
And “Starfleet”… our most Enterprising defender. Beam me up!
Good afternoon Celts…
Two main issue with today’s lead
The first one is we were not cannon fodder in this seasons UCL, we drew twice against Shakhtar and on another day could have won both ties
Timing is a lot in football and Shakhtar played RBL at the right time – they did of course do better than us against the opposition but the experience that seen them getting points off us, ensured better performances in their campaign overall
We need to improve and get more experience it really is that simple, we have brought in a couple of quality players they should (with integration and conditioning) be first team ready – we need a top striker though
In that vain why would we sell our potentially best prospect as a forward? Selling Abada would be footballing and financial lunacy
Sure, he lacked confidence and experience when facing UCL teams, yet that will come I have no doubts
Also, we can’t afford to buy Abada types in, so no matter how aggressive and ambirious we are, selling top prospects before they hit prime and replacing them with inferior players will never improve us.
It is bad football management and bad “asset management”, we need to maximise these players time on the pitch and we need to maximise our return on investment
Dont sell Abada, Liel Abada, I just don’t think you understand…
Hail Hail
🎶You’re gonnae have a riot on your hands 🎶
I want us to be a competitive Champions League team, not the cannon fodder we were this season. To get there, we need an excellent recruitment regime and an aggressive trading policy….
P67; a few articles ago you were saying we just needed to learn how to unbuckle our swash, and tighten our defensive belts in a way that was foreign to Ange [u woz inspired by the World Cup remember ?]
So what is it – good talent acquisition, selling the wantaways and malcontents or learning to play as stodigly as got the currants to the Euro finals ?? Wee GVB must still be bemused by getting them that far and then dumped due to no incomings and an injury tsunami.
———-
PS: A few of us tried to intercede in the AT v MOD88 digital ding-dong – get them to calm their jets as it were.
Have both been dealt with equitably as there was some masterly baiting going on atween the twa ??
BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 1:01 PM,
🎶You’re gonnae have a riot on your hands🎶
Truth!!
Hail Hail
Let’s be ambitious with asking prices first and foremost.
Abada is 21 and has huge potential. We’d need to be breaking our transfer record to let him go especially when you see what the huns got for Bassey.
£17 million shouldn’t be getting so much as a courtesy phone call back.
And now the end is near and so I face the final curtain
My friend I’ll say it clear, next stop is Southampton
A lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth recently, it’s difficult breaking down teams and making chances, we are doing that,we could definitely be doing with putting a few more away,we should be training our guns on coaches like Martindale,who have no interest in giving teams a game,and don’t even consider what their own fans want to see.
I’m all in Paul67. The only constant is Celtic Football Club and the players come and they go.
Trading well is paramount and I’ve never had as much faith in a manager’s ability to find the right player as I have in Ange. Trusting the process, with a step up in class each time.
JJ goes, Johnston in and cash to spare.
Welsh will go, we’ll get a nominal fee and we got Kobayashi for free. More cash to spare. And a left footed balance.
GG will go and Cho will replace him (fingers crossed). Upgrade.
Upgrade the number 6 and get the Tunisian Laidouni. Free up wages and release Guchi, McCarthy and Robertson.
Sell Abada (I’m torn but) and get the next Israeli superkid Oscar Gloukh as an attacking midfielder.
Rinse and repeat. Win leagues and compete in the ECL with better players than we have today.
HH
Chairbhoy
What makes you so certain we wont be able to buy Abada types – we did it 18 months ago?
Sell at the right time and assuming the scouting is working as well as it did before we’ll be able to afford better than him, and not just in his position.
For Abada to be effective in the box we need Jota to stop treating every trap of the ball, run at the defender and eventual cross as if it was all part of a feckin circus act.
Get it killed, beat your man and deliver!
BIG WAVY @ 1:37 PM,
With all due respect selling Adaba and replacing him with a midfielder just doesn’t make sense, especially a young inexperienced midfield player
Liel 21 has got us 24 goals and 15 assists.
We paid good money for him, we put a lot of coaching and conditioning into him, he has had a disappointing UCL campaign but most supporters feel given another chance his ability and experience will make him a huge asset for the UCL next season
The UCL is a potentially 40 million pound competition, not only that, next season is crucial as the format changes after that and we MUST be competitive by then
How is bringing in an eighteen year old midfielder going to do that for us?
We need to keep quality, we need to engender experience, we need to drill in our tactics, we need prime athletes to accomplish what we are creating
Selling Abada cheap is madness
Going to Isreal for more frog kissing
Nay, Nay & Thrice Nay
Ange has drained that swamp and not before time
Here’s a challenge for you, outside improving the Director’s and other employees’ bonuses..
What advantage can be garnered by swapping Liel Abada for Oscar Gloukh?
Hail Hail
Hmm.
Ruthless trading or brutal trading?
Josip looks like he is on his way. If so ..
He goes with my very best wishes. He’s been good for us.
If we get £17m – right back position filled with international talent for seven years at almost net zero cost. Amazing.
Georgios?
No way of knowing what is going on behind the scenes but he’s been good for us doing the hardest job in football – scoring.
Feels to me like he is being talked about now as a commodity ready to be traded.
If he leaves – good luck to the big lad.
Liel Abada? Shut down transfer talk right now.
Too much, too soon.
For me this whole “aggressive trading model” is predicated on us going into each league season believing we are AT LEAST 7-9 points better than the opposition.
If we are, gives us a safety net for aggressive trading and any short term performance impacts as established stars (who have delivered regularly) depart and replacements come up to speed.
Who knows?
Perhaps Ange thinks we are there already?
CELTIC40ME @ 1:47 PM
What makes you so certain we wont be able to buy Abada types – we did it 18 months ago?
That wasn’t my point as such, apologies if it came over wrong
My sincere hope is that we can and will buy Abada “types”.
My point was really the progress the young man has made in that time, technically, physically, experience wise, eighteen months of hugely important development that the lhad has lapped up
There are no guarantees we will get another and another and another
We hope it’s changed days but for every Abada there are a dozen Daniel Arzanis
Once you got that diamond, invested in it and made it shine, you don’t let it go cheaply we need quality, experienced footballers over prospects or cash
We all remember having a dozen prospects on our books and forty million in our coffers, didn’t improve the team much did it?
Hail Hail
Just heard on the radio there, Chris Rea’s driving home for………….
Stopped reading at The Daily Record understands
BOURNESOUPRECIPE @ 2:30 PM,
Do you know Chris Rea is still alive?
I didn’t, fair cheered me up
They said they’d be snow at Xmas…
Hail Hail
Juranovic apart,we shouldn’t be selling anyone next month, we have a league to win