Let’s get the badge kisser-thing sorted once and for all. We have seen enough of them come and go not to be taken in. You can set your watch by them. I don’t believe in a hierarchy of Celtic players, or supporters, based on proclaimed affinity. You are at Celtic because you want to be here, fan or player, and that’s enough.
Kieran Tierney has been a highly paid and respected professional for four years. He mixed with others of the same ilk, as well as some who know they are out of their depth at Celtic. The latter cherish the term of their Celtic contract, the former all wonder what level they will be able to reach in the game. All of them. To the best of my knowledge, no Celtic player has rejected circa £75k per week to remain here.
I don’t know what his medical advice has been, but if you read about chronic osteitis pubis, you get an insight into where an athlete’s head may be when he has a persistent injury that is not responding as hoped.
“Osteitis pubis is a painful degenerative condition of the pubic symphysis, surrounding soft tissues and tendons…. It is currently considered as one of the most debilitating pain syndromes for athletes. Although the condition is considered self-limiting, it often requires stoppage of sporting activities for several months, representing a significant problem especially for elite athletes.”
Kieran got this move coming off the worst season of his professional career. We will see if things improve, or go downhill, this season. Consider what advice his agent would have given him right now. None of this forms part of the public discourse, instead we got a clumsy social media comment about being out with his pals while Celtic are playing a crucial qualifier.
If we are serious about making progress as a football club, we need to take our player trading onto another level. That means everyone has a price and we should be ready with replacement options whenever a value offer arrives.
If you think selling your top player for £25m is a bad day at the office, imagine your challengers selling a single player for that sum, and how transformational this kind of money is. Trading is as much a part of success in the elite game as tactics and fitness. There are no sacred cows, because eventually, the most sublime talents perish.
We should always be ready to make a deal. See how it is done in Portugal. Or look at Ajax, who were going nowhere, then discovered how to trade, sold €72m of talent in 2016-17, €73m in 2017-18 and reached the Champions League semi-final in 2018-19.
Multi-treble winning Brendan Rodgers is not a talent spotter. He added Scott Sinclair (whom he had worked with) and Moussa Dembele (a John Park recommendation) to Ronny Deila’s squad. If we are going to spend significant sums of money this summer, better to have Neil Lennon with his hand on the tiller.
It felt like a bad day when Brendan left, but now I am sure it was for the best. There is no telling the damage Brendan and Lee would do with this kind of money. Kieran was great, the best left back in decades, and yes, he should have stayed for 10, but I’m already feeling pretty neutral about him leaving.
At Celtic, we love our history more than any others do, but football is all about tomorrow. Time to get busy writing the next chapter.
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CELTIC
i have reposted my comment from the previous thread.
I think that the league this season will be tight. Too close to call. This is my reasoning.
The Scottish premier league is unique. It is a handicap race. And celtic are the club being handicapped. Last season there were five instances of players who should have been given red cards in games against celtic who were retrospectively banned. There were two other occasions when sevco players who should have been retrospectively banned were let off.
This season the cheating will reach epidemic proportions. The mantra will be stop nine in a row at all costs. Like last season, sevco will receive more penalties and concede fewer penalties than any other team. You can almost guarantee it. This and the red card issue must be worth at least eight to ten points to sevco before a ball is kicked. This is a huge disadvantage for celtic to overcome.
The team finishing third last season have been knocked out of Europe by a team from wales. This is the standard of play in scotland’s premier league.
Sevco don’t need to have strong team or a good coach to win this league. Jock Wallace won two trebles and alex mcleish won one treble.
Celtic and sevco will play eighteen games against the bottom six clubs. If steven gerrard can put a team on the park who can beat the likes of ross county, st mirren, livingstone etc. then it will be difficult to overcome this handicap. Sevco will drop points against the bottom six but so will celtic. Celtic had four draws against the bottom six last season.
Celtic and sevco will play twenty games against the top six clubs. Last season the clubs who gave sevco most problems were Kilmarnock and Aberdeen. Both of these clubs are now weaker than they were last season.
Sevco will drop points against the top six but so will celtic.
I think it could come down to the four celtic-sevco games and celtic were not convincing last season. Celtic were rolled over twice at ibrox. They were lucky to get nil in both games. I think celtic are now intimidated by the atmosphere at ibrox. To win this league they may have to get results at ibrox.
All I want is a bag of cans and KT back
then I’ll release the hostages
WESTCRAIGS
agree
Agree he should have stayed for 10, which if it is to happen will be next season. But maybe the injury will make a short career curtailed even further and he thought this may be his one chance.
The ones who were in denial on here and trying to shut down any discussion of the reality that KT wanted to go will be the ones hit hardest.
HH
TOMMYB on 9TH AUGUST 2019 7:45 AM
said it earlier- right time for him to go. We 25 mil and we had already recruited this summer- we live in a different universe to the rest of the spfl. Well done the bored for getting us here. And, Lennie is talking about further recruitment. Get us the 9 Lennie!!!
of course he wanted to go from his beloved team.
The McGregor story is state propaganda.
Leicester City already signed Dennis Praet on deadline day. Add him to Maddison & Tielemans and there is no room for another creative midfielder.
Right on brother (P67).
25m for a player with that injury’s spectre is sizeable. Will say it again, decent dealing by our execs.
Yes, our trading needs to go to another level; and the level has less to do with pure profits and more to do with quality reinvestment, rather than bargain-bin and short term speculation moves.
BTW, the social media comment shows where KT’s head now is; dan Lahndan innit.
Still wish him all the best.
I can’t make my mind up regards to Lenny’s comments. Were they tongue in cheek?? He was asked the question about getting some of the £25 million to spend, and he proceeded to list practically every position on the park.
Anyway, my point would be, the spin that comes out of Celtic Park, at times is becoming boring.
Less shit talk, and more action is needed.
In terms of wingers… Mikey Johnston and Scott Sinclair to fight it out down the left. And Forrest and Shved to rotate wide right. The others, Hayes, Morgan, etc. not good enough IMO
3 Signings I would like to see us make : Gumny (right back) £3.5 / £4 mil , Merling (left back) £2.75 mil , and
Cifuentes (Defensive mid) £3 mil
These guys would be a good start. All young, talented and strong players.
Soon as it was established he wanted to go then fine.
If a player does not want to be here then I will not mourn his departure.
First BR now KT,based upon their comments,I was confident as to their sincerity and longevity,for me a sad situation that those 2 in particular were lauded by the fans,then disappointed them.
QUADROPHENIAN on 9TH AUGUST 2019 10:13 AM
Right on brother (P67).
25m for a player with that injury’s spectre is sizeable. Will say it again, decent dealing by our execs.
==========================================================================
And just the latest of a number of decent deals .
Hail Hail , PL.
Interesting to note Man Utd struggles to recruit.
Top heavy defensively with many of the same personnel but with Maguire and Wan-Bissaka added.
Very little change middle to front with young Daniel James added.
This is a club who purport to be the biggest in the world and they play in the richest league.
Yet they can’t recruit tier 1 players – Messi, Ronaldo (had him & couldnt keep him), Mbappe or Neymar. They even struggle to recruit tier 2 players – Dybala not much interested in going to Manchester, Eriksen if leaving London wanted to go to Spain instead, Bruno Fernandes, Mandzukic.
Whilst I agree with those who say there are better value players out there on the continent getting them is far from a formality.
However, you could say for the next few weeks we’ve never had a better chance – cash rich, almost guaranteed Euro football until Xmas, and crucially… EPL window closed.
Should be an interesting few weeks…
HH
Westcraigs
You are correct.
As Sevco progress, and lets not kid ourselves, they have progressed under Slippy’s watch, then fundamentally all they need to do to stay on our coat-tail, is consistently beat the rest. Which, as things stand they are probably more than capable of doing.
Of course there will be the occasional slip up. Take their eye off the ball. The unexpected drop of points at Fir Park, or at Livi.
But we will do the same.
So yeah, the derby matches will be pivitol I believe to the title outcome. We need to win the head to heads at Celtic Park, and avoid defeat in their midden
Timaloy
I agree, the McGregor story is made up paish in the wake of Tierney going
Time to get busy writing a few cheques…
Too true about the McGregor story, ‘I smell Shite’ (Chewing the Fat style)
It is funny how we slag the Hun’s for swallowing the £10 Million Moreles PR story , then PL and DD think they can peddle similar lies to the Celtic support.
It is frightening how far detached from the reality of Celtic supporters our hierarchy are.
Yes that big bad Brendan, only filled the stadium and won a treble treble, also had the club making a record turnover, what a disaster
I expect feeling neutral about KT being sold all stems from being peeped by the Plc PR operation that’s been going on since the end of last season.
I wonder how many of us who park there bums on a season ticket seat , are confident that NL will get finance to meet the challenge ahead , and to improve the positions where we dont have the armoury to take on the challenge . I am not saying we dont have good individual players , with skill in abundance ,because we have, what we dont have as was witnessed twice at the Victorian lavvy and that is a few players with steel , a few like big Roy , Davy hay , Jim brogan, wee Bertie the list from the past goes on . Broonie has shouldered that responsibility on his own for years now , he is getting targeted more now as he gets older, from two bit hardmen who wouldn’t have gone near him a few seasons ago . This must be addressed . But don’t hold out too much hope for it .
Good luck to KT and best wishes ,
hope to see you back in the hoops in the not to distant future
after being a huge success down south .
MACJAY; yep, we wheel n deal pretty well, but we should improve the quality quotient at the cost of squad fillers and pandering to the need to just ‘dae something’ during transfer windows.
Also, on this momentous day….
“Why did the Beatle cross the road…?
Preped even
JIMTIM on 9TH AUGUST 2019 10:29 AM
I agree funding needs to be released.
However, I don’t understand NL’s thinking. Suddenly we need 2 wingers when we have loads! Why did we renew Sinclair for a year when he doesn’t seem to fancy him? He’s now our top earner and not first choice!
Surely those wages would be better placed elsewhere. There have been some good players floating around as free agents
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/statistik/vertragslosespieler
Dear Paul,
No wish to offend but at last you are back on form with this thread.
Not only has the site become pretty well un-navigatible because of ads, pop ups and clumsy refresh (just thought you’d want to know that!) but most of your thread leads have been, you might say, very threadbare to say the least.
You seem to be unwilling or unable to make using this site easier but at least your latest commentary is top class.
HH
– Paul67 will you let the Brendan thing go for Gods sake man its embarrassing
– KT absolutely he has to pursue his life his ambition his opportunity – we all do
– KT going is a message a very vey big message to young footballers around Europe possibly the world, Celtic is a top place to play, develop and progress
PL is not infallible he has made a few mistakes but his managing of our model seek acquire develop benefit sell
is as good as it gets, he has created financial strength – we are fortunate to have him
But for all his success if he does not use the financial strength wisely (win 10 in a row) he will hunted
Tough gig Peter
67ECW
Hello again all you young rebels.
Yes Paul, amazing how time is a great healer, i’m in the Kieran who? camp
as you probably know.
Big weekend coming up for the peninsula rebels, a treble treble dinner dance
on Sat, followed by a day at our home base on the bay the Re-Publican on
Sun with big tim from Castlemilk Capt. Spalding performing.
How about a mention for real legends, the ghuys who spend their lives starting
up Celtic clubs all over the world, they give their time and i know from personal
experience they are often out of pocket to keep the Celtic ethos going, they don’t
look for financial gain or adulation they just get on with the job of making our
club the best in the world, maybe not as big as Arsenal but then they don’t have
any supporters clubs here in Oz.
H.H Mick
Options…
**
Barcelona forget full-back Diego Palacios, set for Los Angeles
By Football Espana staff
Barcelona have discarded the option of signing Ecuadorian full-back Diego Palacios, who spent last season on loan at Willem II.
Diario Sport say that the left-back is now set to move to MLS and join Los Angeles, after Barca had been monitoring a move to bring him into their B side.
The Blaugrana were said to be one of three clubs keeping tabs on the 19-year-old along with Dutch giants Ajax and PSV Eindhoven.
Palacios has impressed at this summer’s Under-20 World Cup for his nation and he had helped them to a quarter-final place, alerting attention from the clubs.
Barca are using the Eredivisie strongly for recruitment purposes this summer having already signed Frenkie de Jong from Ajax and Ludovit Reis from FC Groningen.
The Catalan giants were said to be in talks with Ecuadorian team SD Aucas – the player’s parent club – although Der Gerderlander in the Netherlands had said PSV are in advanced negotiations for the left-back, although this appears to not to be happening now.
Nicknamed El Chiqui, the defender impressed on a season-long loan deal in the Dutch top flight with Willem II and he won his first senior international cap last year in a friendly against Qatar.
Transfermarkt say that Palacios has a transfer market value of €1.5m.
**
The difference with Ajax though is that they spent the money. How much cash do they have or did they have after the close of each transfer window?
I think it’s more likely to be true that Rodgers tried to buy McGregor than Desmond and Lawwell making that up. I’m also sure when Rodgers is asked he won’t deny it. I’m also sure McGregor isn’t ecstatic about losing £40k per month.
The comment about 2 wingers was probably a tongue in cheek riposte re BR’s comments about wingers, por cierto.
MULLET AND CO 2
I think I read on here that Ajax have spent about 30% of their profit on players over the last few years, very similar to what Celtic have done. Now don’t shoot the messenger :) por cierto.
paul can you start by taking that photo of K who in an arse*** top down , no need for it he is no longer part of our club.
MULLET AND CO 2 on 9TH AUGUST 2019 10:42 AM
As POR CIERTO suggested, Ajax has spent nowhere near the amount they have received.
How many titles have they won in the last 20 years? 7. How many in the last 10? 5.
They had an incredible season last year but that could end up an anomaly. They caught lightning in a bottle now half of CQN thinks it’s easy.
What’s certain, absolute stick-on….is that the scoddish meeja will now turn thur sights…and sites……
………… on Cal-Mac and agitate for him to follow his erstwhile team-mate South at the earliest juncture.
The obvious but sleekit aim is to weaken Celtic….
The konverse is true when the Huns need to punt a player to keep the lights on to survive……..eg) Fat Charlie……..
FAKT.
£3m gets you a player like Bolingoli. The boy is an athlete but is raw when it comes to defending.
I suspect Neil will be looking to bring in players of a similar calibre.
Paul you say it may be for the best that BR left. But missed the point that Moussa,, KT and others in our team developed massively, under BR, to the point we could sell them on for big bucks.
Did any off our remaining background staff learn enough under BR to continue that development, ? If not then players like Bolingoli will continue to get found out when we play a higher calibre team.
Neil might be able to spot a player, but in the market we shop in, development is key.
If BR and his teams departure has sown any doubt that this development may be curtailed, then the board should be looking to recruit someone like Ajax youth development coach Arnold Mühren to assist our current coaching staff.
The one thing we can not afford to do is stagnate as a team. We only have to look at the players under Ronny, and the same players under BR to see the results of good development.
BANKIEBHOY1
Maybe Calmac will want to be a Celtic legend, i’ve still got the
faith in some of our young bhoys.
H.H Mick
Rodgers net spend is £16m at his new team.
I don’t think you can criticise him and Congerton when you are still targeting players they wanted after they left?
Rodgers signed Edouard and Ntcham. Are we saying both are no good or was Ntcham a Lawwell family signing? Edouard was what then?
Hayes signed by Rodgers played by Lennon.
Sinclair was on top money that’s why the club want him out. I don’t genuinely believe Lennon doesn’t like him. He’s been told not to play him. Sinclair has been outstanding.
Who scouted Shved and signed him? Arzani?
Celtic wanted the Luton left back that Rodgers signed.