“I… have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare….”
Nicolas Kuhn, who turned 24 earlier this month, signed a contract until summer 2029 yesterday and is likely to make his debut against Buckie Thistle on Sunday. There is a lot to consider regarding this one.
As an undergrad at Leipzig, Ajax paid €2m for him six years to the day before he signed for Celtic. Two years later Bayern Munich loaned him before signing a permanent contract with the player in July 2020. He then spent a year on loan in the German second tier with Ergebirge Aue before Rapid Vienna paid €500k for him 18 months ago.
The Leipzig, Ajax and Bayern youth setups are legendary, comparable with the scale of those at Chelsea and Manchester City in England. Each of these club rinse through dozens of players but you seldom see anyone who has spent time at three clubs so invested in youth. [I’m not saying they are all productive, but they certainly invest].
His first season at Rapid was wrecked by injury: in six months he made only four substitute appearances, but he finished the season as first choice on the right wing and he has remained fit and Rapid’s fulcrum ever since.
He has made less 28 topflight starts in his career, so Celtic have moved fast. In this respect, he resembles Dedryck Boyata, who arrived on loan from Manchester City, also as a 24-year-old, having just 19 topflight starts behind him.
You don’t get signed by Leipzig, Ajax and Bayern unless you have a “particular set of skills”, in the case of Nicolas, this appears to be speed, crossing and chance creation. His combination of these attributes gets scouts excited.
Rapid and not the club you remember so fondly. They are riddled with financial problems and have a squad unworthy of a green and white strip – think Hibs. The scenario with Nicolas reminds me of Patrick Roberts at Sunderland, no winger could make a silk purse from that squad. [In related news, Netflix are back for a third season of their Sunderland fly-on-the-wall documentary, the earlier series’ are a strong recommend].
We have a well-established Japanese contingent and a three-man group from Korea (one now on loan locally). Nicolas joins Maik Nawrocki as our second player born-and-bred in northwest Germany. There has been some market investment in that area, it’s a new Celtic geo-hotspot.
Welcome to Celtic, Nicolas.
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GREENPINATA on 17TH JANUARY 2024 1:51 PM
LETS ALL DO THE HUDDLE on 17TH JANUARY 2024 1:32 PM
…………….
I also fully AGREE.
NO SCUM in PARADISE.
HH.
No way should Yang be sent out on loan ,for me he is a project who will only get better under Brendan Rogers ,as for Mikey Johnson I think Brendan should keep him ,and for another striker in this window we have one in Maedea,
Welcome, Nicolas and good luck.
Don’t know the first thing about the guy, haven’t even watched clips.
He might flourish, he might not.
He is now a Celtic player … so has my full support.
The SMSM peddled a line that the deal was in jeopardy because of penny pinching.
That turned out to be a bog standard load of old fanny.
Now the deal is done, expect the “he isn’t very good line” to be promoted …
…. complete with one-off rent-a-gob offerings from people in Austrian football who don’t like Rapid.
Heard that Celtic have told them to ram the 750 🎫
Let’s hope Celtic have told them to get lost as regards the 750 ticket allocation.
As for banning the SMSM?
Like many Celtic fans, I already have.
Ignorant
Stupid (moronic might be more accurate)
Biased
Dishonest
Nasty
Why some of our fans swallow their stuff AND pay for the privilege ?
Beyond me.
Big Jimmy and WITS. What a double act. Dearie me. 🙄
Have already seen the crap online about our new kid.
Feck them.
welcome Nicolas, if brendan likes you,so do i. good luck and hopefully you dont open a newspaper telling you how crap you are before kicking a ball, as per moravchik
Hail Hail
My friends in Celtic,
It is irrefutable that domestic cups are devalued.
Imo, in the absence of a viable reserve league we should use the two domestic cups for fringe players and development of our youths.
European football and the league are our priorities.
HH.
GREENPINATA on 17TH JANUARY 2024 3:36 PM
Players come to Celtic to win trophies. Its already difficult enough attracting players to the spl without our fans devaluing every league win because the Huns are crap and then telling players they wont win any cups while they’re here.
Since there’s a wee lull in our transfer policy discussion I would like to return o a subject that was discussed yesterday and had me lying awake thinking on it:
PARKHEADCUMSALFORD on 16TH JANUARY 2024 8:17 PM
Tom McLaughlin,
I have on here more than once said that the 65 Final is, imo, the most important victory in my lifetime. That includes Lisbon, as I don’t believe Lisbon would have happened, if we had not won that wonderful day.
*Oh, I know where you are coming from PCS and although we beat them in in the Glasgow Cup 9 days later IMHO the catalyst for Lisbon and our first honest NIAR, was the 2 penalties and field invasion match 6 months later as they got revenge for the GC game in our 3rd league game of the season.
Jock had omitted Joe McGoals and although history now says he was injured Jock apologised to the support after it saying he had made a mistake in preferring the Bear tae him.
However, 2-1 down at the half we were further badly hindered when big Billy had tae go up front because of an injury with Chopper replacing him in the defense and although we didnae score anymore neither did they, but we never looked back and were soon scoring goals for fun when we met them 5 weeks later in the LC Final only 5 days after a sapping replay against the hibbees which we won 4-0.
Jock brought Joe in for this game with the Bear going back tae the left wing where he slotted home 2 blatant penalties, thank the donald there was no VAR then, and although they had a late og, we held on admirably to claim 2 trophies in 6 months but NOT just that we now realised we could beat the huns and where it counted in big games too.
But it was also the way we stood up tae them and for me the turning point was when Ian Young humphed the wee thug johnston on to the dirt track early doors, both players were booked tae, the latter for retaliation, after that he went intae hiding, we had proved that afternoon that we could now match them in brawn as well as skill.
After we were presented with the trophy and did the customary lap of honour the other thugs on the terracing stormed on tae the pitch in an attempt tae harm our players and staff, their punishment was the lap of honour was banned for 10 years.
We were on the ascendency now and just over 2 months later walloped them 5-1 after conceding the opening goal early doors, that foggy afternoon although 1 down there were only one set of supporters singing as they new the inevitable was about to happen.
It is an absolute disgrace that there is no reserve leagues. Back in the late 80s early 90s, you had the main reserve league which was great for fans who couldn’t get to the first team games. Pretty simple, first team is playing Hearts at Tynecastle, then reserves play at Celtic park. Then there was the reserve league west vs the lower league teams which was really good as you more or less played lower league first teams. We could never beat Queens park for some reason 🤷♂️
The road to the first team for many kids just isn’t available. How did the SFA allow that to appen?
Sean
CELTIC40ME on 17TH JANUARY 2024 4:45 PM
#
Couldn’t agree more . Scottish cup wins in particular , have provided some of the most iconic moments in my Celtic supporting life . From the 1965 win v Dunfermline heralding Jock’s golden age , to Big Pierre’s header v Airdrie to give us light after years of hell .
As meaningful as many a league title .
If everything I’ve read about him is right it does look like we’re moving away from more general attackers to players who specialise. Kühn seems like a Brendan Rodgers type winger which can surely only help us play more to his patterns.
I particularly like the chat about his good defensive stats, very important in a 4-3-3.
TT,
The 5-1 game in the fog was one of the best I’ve seen. Fortunately, all the goals (including theirs) were scored at the Celtic end, which is where I was for a change. We were so much better than them that it could have been any score.
Rumour is a LB ,and a striker on loan with option to buy
Reserve league
As we don’t have one in Scotland could Celtic apply to join the English reserve league?
I would suggest that all those ( and I am one ) who don`t want any Huns in Paradise should let Celtic know. It only takes a minute and a simple comment would suffice eg. `I feel Celtic Park is a much more enjoyable experience without any `Rangers` ` supporters present.`
Here is the e-mail address:
jptaylor@celticfc.co.uk.
Welcome to the Famous Nicolas, may your stay be long and successful
don’t expect many if any to follow this window but not to despondent as i believe BR has a strong enough squad to win cup and league
I doubt they would though it would be great competition for our younger players.
Do they still have the BP youth cup as that was a big competition for the pro youth teams. In 1989they turned the Glasgow Cup into a u18, with 2 overage players allowed. That was a fun time. Beat the Huns at Hampdump on Dec 31st 1989. Made it back for Mass with my medal and champagne soaked jersey around me neck under my big winter coat.
The full stop after co.uk is not necessary and will maybe prevent the email from being delivered.
Try this:
jptaylor@celticfc.co.uk
Keep them away from Celtic Park. Do not allow them back. So many reasons for refusing tickets to these miscreants..keep ig Green and White.
it not ig.
Full Celtic Media Conference: Nicolas Kühn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8dLmOvLthI
New bhoy spoke well
Also reading back the last few days
RIP to Big Jimmys dad
May he never walk alone
.CELTIC40ME on 17TH JANUARY 2024 4:45 PM
I respect your opinion re domestic cup competitions. We have had the same discussions in the pub.
Ticket sales generally demonstrate that domestic cups are not the attraction they once were. Even the oldest and probably the best known domestic cup competition ie The FA cup doesn’t have the attraction it once had.
Manchester United put the boot into that competition by swaning over to South America for a jolly.
Where do we test fringe players in competitive football ?
I do however have sympathy for the strategy that Arsenal adopted. Play the youngsters and fringe players until the final.
Anyway, our fringe players should be perfectly capable of winning against just about every team they will face in Scottish football.
Generally players come to Celtic to improve and obtain a move to one of the big leagues. The major attraction we have and must prioritise is European football.
To play in the CL for any aspiration young players is a dream come true. It refreshes the parts that domestic football cannot reach.
I am acutely aware that many fans will agree with your viewpoint.
Cheers and HH.
Happy Birthday to Setting Free the Bears and hope to see you on these pages soon
HH
Willkommen NK
hammer them in the CL
GREENPINATA on 17TH JANUARY 2024 6:46 PM
The Cups never used to get me excited but since we’ve won so many of them recently I’ve got a bit addicted to them :)
In England the League cup often gets used for playing younger players, but even then the managers get criticised for it, naturally only when they lose. At the start of the season Ange got criticised for playing a second eleven and going out against a good Fulham team on pens, I tried to explain to a Spurs fan I know what he was doing but he wasn’t having it.
Maybe its a bit different up there because teams like Spurs ever win anything, but I reckon if we stopped winning the cups it would be the same story soon enough.
But in general I agree, I wouldn’t have a problem with playing the young team and the development players.
If we do do, that might not be a smart move. Just think!
Huns would rack up Cup doubles nearly every season,no way would fans have that.A nonsense idea,sorry.What would be the point in denying any of our players,winners medals.Its what they crave.Never really noticed any Celtic players,not totally ecstatic,after lifting any cup.
Why dont you ask Calmac what he thinks of not bothering with the cups.
I’ve got to say Nicolas Kuhn looks suspiciously like Greg Taylor…..
He’s not another Doppelganger is he?
wouldntputitpasttheboardcsc
The problem in England is not the cups,its trying to get into the top 4, survive relegation.Its the obscene amount of money SKY have pumped into that league,that has devalued the cups.Owners and Chairmen ,not too interested,but ask the fans.Most fans raging when they go out with a weakened team.No one cares about them.
Take away the Cup wins,you take away so many magical moments from the fans.Especially ours.
2013: Celtic legend Sean Fallon dies at the age of 90.
THE IRON MAN
https://www.thecelticwiki.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Fallon-Sean-Pic-0986.jpg
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1973: Manchester United sign striker Lou Macari for a fee of £200,000
I still remember how angry I was. Searched out and tore his head off (didn’t want to ruin the Hoops) from the multiple Celtic pictures that festooned my bedroom walls.
https://wikifoundryimages.s3.amazonaws.com/52f-r-BaegjNrVjhA1YCuQ596223
https://wikifoundryimages.s3.amazonaws.com/YMl9pu7141_iQGYr8WrX0w646756
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