As I walked out of Celtic Park after the Leipzig game it occurred to me that we are a totally different football team than we would be without our three Japanese players. Kyogo, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda transformed Celtic three years ago and the trophies have flowed ever since.
Between them, the cost just shy of £7m, money that is almost within the reach of four clubs in Scotland. We signed them, because Ange Postecoglou knew them from his time in Yokohama. There is value in Japan, but since Ange, we have looked elsewhere.
Last week, it was difficult to avoid talking about Nicolas Kuhn, the breakthrough player across this season’s Champions League (so far). Nicolas signed in January and was cursed in some places by being regarded as a ‘project’. It took less than 6 months for his project to mature into a player we could struggle to hold onto.
There is a common thread between the players signed from Japan and Nicolas – City Football Group (CFG). Yokohama are a CFG member club, who also developed Mark Lawwell for a decade before he reunited with Ange at Celtic as our head of recruitment.
Mark Lawwell’s term also saw Paulo Bernardo join (initially on loan) and Alistair Johnston. He found Yang, Oh and Kwon, all three of whom are back in the South Korea national squad.
And, of course, Alexandro Bernabei, the left back currently ripping it up Brazil, and who we are set to make a packet on, as well as Tomoki Iwata, who is thriving at Birmingham. His hit rate reflected his development with the elite recruiment resources at Manchester City.
Before Brendan arrived in 2016, we discussed how those in senior positions at Celtic had only ever worked at smaller clubs. Brendan’s appointment broke the mould and Celtic’s football operation leapt forward.
The two we recruited from CFG elevated our operations further and were bang on where we needed to be as a club. Our identity and mission was clear, we find talent with elite potential and transform them into winners and Champions League players.
We still have an elite manager in Brendan. We have money in the bank and will continue to buy players. Going forward, they are more likely to resemble Adam Idah (£9.5m, English second tier, will not appreciate in value), and Arne Engels (£11m, German top tier, smaller appreciation likely), than Kuhn or Hatate.
As a consequence, our identity now is less sharp than it was a year ago and our growth potential is inhibited. The future lies in finding gold in places like Vienna, not the bench of an English Championship club.
The Ange Postecoglou – Mark Lawwell era demonstrated what you can find when an elite manager and head of recruitment work together. Listen out, you’ll hear, “How are we going to hold onto these Mark Lawwell signings”, as I did from one CQN’er the walk out of Celtic Park last Tuesday night. Still, those who want to spend money to stay ahead of the other lot, instead of operating at a genuinely elite level across the club, will be happy.
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TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on 13th November 2024 10:08 pm
Great performance by Celtic Ghirls tonight. Lost 2-1 but gave their all for 90 minutes against one of the favourite teams for the trophy.
We had to listen to two of the most patronising women commentators unfortunately. From the beginning they were telling us how hard a night it was going to be for our Ghirls and the defence in particular. At the start of the second half Chelsea brought on three players who we were told were great and they hoped that the Celtic defence were ready for a very hard second half. Apparently we would be spending a lot of time without the ball and that we would tire especially towards the end. Well Elena Sadiku must have put something in their half time cuppa because our Ghirls ran around like demons and in the last 10 minutes it looked like the Chelsea team were struggling to hold on.
A narrow defeat but a great performance from our Celtic Women. Well done to Elena and the Ghirls. Their performance, physicality and fitness levels have improved unbelievably since I started watching them two years ago.
…………
I AGREE Mate. I watched the game on TNT Sports.
The Two Female Commentators were pissing me off long BEFORE Half Time. I believe BOTH were English ?
The Celtic Gals did their best.. good luck to them in future games.
HH.
Despising and hatred will do it. Maybe a few slogans. No wonder trump got in, dumbed down, no critical thinking. How is this helping Palestinians. Long time ago but I knew many Israelis who did more to help Palestinians than your rhetoric. Same type of people who lived in the kibbutz near Gaza and went to the peace concert. Support Hamas that will help. Netanyahu.
Big Jimmy
It was a Chelsea love in from the pair of them. They talked about the Celtic Ghirls as if they were a plucky wee team. Our Ghirls played really well, were organised and had a game plan. Kelsey Daugherty in goal had a great game as did many others. I would say that the three much vaunted Chelsea subs who came on at half time to show that Chelsea meant business were less effective than the three Celtic subs who came on at the same time a bit later. When our subs came on the team were more aggressive and played a more attacking game. The manager’s tactics were very good.
morning already
: UEFA coefficient § Women’s club coefficient
Rank Team Points
1 Spain Barcelona 113.899
2 France Lyon 95.933
3 England Chelsea 86.966
4 France Paris Saint-Germain 77.933
5 Germany Bayern Munich 76.766
That is what our ghirls were up against. Great show.
COYGIG
The horrors in the ME will still be ongoing when most of us are long gone,and a long time beyond.Two implacable foes.Iran is the instigator and supplier of all weapons,to arm its proxy fighters in Hama’s,Hezbollha,with the aim of destroying the state of Israel.That will never change.Israel knows this,and responds to any kind off attack with the ferocity and venom we have witnessed.
Sadly,as we have witnessed,when large conflicts like this erupt,the civilian population bear the brunt of casualties.
There is no end to this.Protestations,demonstrations,pleas,offers of mediation,peace plans,GB protests ,nothing will change the core cause.In the past,it has settled for a spell of fragile peace,but now I think it has gone too far.We should be worried.
Not to the stage when we fill up a football blog with opinions that don’t matter.
Lenton Miller for Celtic, not in my book,BrendanRogers needs to offload 4 players in January’s transfer window, Bain,Ralston,Welsh and Taylor, and a couple of the young development Players need to be added to the first team ,how are we to know if they are any good if they don’t get a chance under Brendan Rogers.
Good morning CQN.
Lovely morning, sun shining, simple pleasures.
To earlier chat – I too was surprised at the costs mooted for upgrading the South Stand.
Without knowing the suggested scope of that upgrade, I’d bite your hand off to get it done for £80m.
As for upgraded capacity?
I’ve shared by (emotionally driven) thoughts on that many times ….
… but I’ll share them again.
67,525.
– petmanently honours our club’s finest hour
– beats Murrayfield (by a whisker) as Scotland’s largest sports arena
– puts us in Europe’s top ten in terms of the capacity of a regularly used club stadium. (The big time ! / the top table .. and all that)
T bhoy
i have no shame in despising the Israeli gvt, idf etc
if some kind of peace came tomorrow, i’d still hate them
I told you why i went on the marches
i wasnt offering any critical thinking or a solution
i dont doubt you know many good israelis – i’ve met a few myself, work from time to time with them even now
I’ve also worked almost exclusively with jews in other places
every time you reply its like yea but, no but, yea but and move the chat
where did i say i support Hamas ?
the figures, the changes of the argument etc etc, some would say….(just fill it in yourself, cos thats what you’ve been doing)
TurkeyBoy – back to the football – but what about Greg Taylor ? utter pish against Kilmarnock :)
and who would Lennon Miller actually replace on the Celtic bench ?
and how good has the keeper and big Trusty been recently…
We are sadly minnows in the Women’s CL.A massive step up from what the Ghirls play every week in their league where double figure victories are common.The set up in Scotland,as usual,shoddy,lacking real support,lacking attendances,as a result.Compared to England,and the rest of Europe,its a joke.
Even our girls,having to play on horrendous plastic every home game,Hamilton now,the worst,is disgraceful for a full time operation.
Nobody plays on this in England.Our girls have had their best performances on grass.Tynecastle,Hampden,Celtic Park.On plastic,with two Ladies teams playing,its usually dreadful.
They fought well last night,but were hopelessly outclassed,as the stats showed.Our keeper,as usual,a wee star.She really is an excellent keeper.Onto that mob on Sunday.Make sure Caitlin plays.
and what about the scotsmen/development quota required for europe ?
It’s getting me really depressed reading about what’s going on in Gaza and the Middle East. Have stopped watching, listening to or reading the news because of it and the biased reporting by the Israeli-friendly media.
Found this video a while back and as disgusting as it is, it explains a lot of what is going on today.
Britain at the heart of it as usual, along with France.
https://youtu.be/JN4mnVLP0rU?feature=shared
It just explains how and why the Middle East borders were created btw. No shocking scenes or images. Wouldn’t post stuff like that. 👍
spikeysauldman on 14th November 2024 10:36 am
and who would Lennon Miller actually replace on the Celtic bench ?
We will always need good players, and a big squad to handle European football, it’s possible Hatate could be next to go, who knows? Looks an ideal player for Brendan to develop.
Spikey,
I can see two sides to the problem.
sorry TurkeyBhoy – my last non-football post was meant for TaurangaBhoy
btw, surely even you thought Greg Taylor was mince the other night :)
Spikey,
GT against Killie.?.We got a clean sheet so done well.
Lennon Miller not going to replace anyone on our bench.I would think,loan back,until Summer.We have to sign him though.
Trusty,Kasper,superb.
I am loving us at the moment,I did say months ago that this team could surprise us all.
Spikey,😃
On GT,nope.
It’s not a war no more; the way this English medic describes it, it sounds like some kind of grouse-beating using bombs and armed drones. I think it’s affecting me adversely (oh poor me eh!) as the world whistles and turns its back on the slaughter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgsK7noLGOM
Good afternoon
London prices, but still a Celtic Park extension similar to the palace development could be the solution,
Build up and over the existing structure, without displacing the current season book holders.
I have been sitting here thinking, if the internal original frontage of old Celtic Park is sti;ll there, why not make it a feature inside the new build,
———————————-
Building works on the main stand at Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park stadium could begin next summer, but the club is facing soaring costs.
The new stand could now cost Palace at least £150million – up by 50% on the initial projections. It could be 2027 before the much-enlarged ground stages its first fixture.
The club blames inflation for the cost increase – the original price tag in any case dated from 2018 – but says it will fund the cost of building the stand through loans from Palace’s shareholders.
The rising costs include “several million pounds” paid to supermarket chain Sainsbury’s for a small parcel of land in their car park that is vital for access to the site of the 13,500 capacity stand, and the costs of finding new homes for the residents of Wooderson Close, next to the stadium.
https://insidecroydon.com/2023/10/13/development-costs-for-selhurst-parks-new-stand-soar-by-50/
new article posted.
WHAT IS THE STARZ on 14TH NOVEMBER 2024 8:46 AM
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There surely must be a ‘but’- leave all political protest, posturing & pyros outside Celtic Park and other grounds where Celtic play.
Things are now snowballing with the club and all supporters being caught in an avalanche instigated by a few hundred when all they want is two hours peace to watch their team play. Too much to ask ? – too much to expect?
Safety, consideration and respect are included in the price of a Celtic season ticket and should also be carried with us when we visit opponents. HH
Chairbhoy
“No doubt you have a very good point, yet you ask for metrics when the whole point of my reply to Weeron was we are lacking that detail.”
___________________________
Asking for the metrics was not the main point- I knew it was unanswerable. You were squeezing 2 similar players into 2 different categories on the basis of nothing but “it seems to me”.
The main point I was raising was “If we don’t know the metrics and we don’t know the detail, how can you recognise a “sea-change” in an unstated signing strategy?
From then, you fall back on – “Well, that’s what Paul67 said Mark Lawwell’s strategy was (and I assume you think that was Paul telling us what Peter Lawwell’s strategy was too- a shared family approach , dictated in secret by Peter the Puppet Master).
Paul67 is reading the runes just like you and me. The Official Celtic “strategy” is just a pious wish- “To be as good a team as we can be”. It will never commit itself to clear objectives such as:-
We will qualify for CL Groups in x or y years out of 5
We will qualify for last 16 once in a decade
We wil win a domestic treble every 3 or 4 years.
No club does this and no club should.
If you say there was a “strategy” to sign under 24’s for under £4m, you have to account for Edouard, and everyone who cost more than £4m under Peter Lawwell and some imagine “old guard” and you have to account for Aaron Mooy, Carlton Cole, Joe Hart, Craig Gordon and many others. If you can’t account for that then your definition of the “strategy” falls.
It’s possibly looking at it back to front. If you are looking for both football value and trading value in signing a footballer, then, by default, you will be looking at MOSTLY younger, less well known players who will cost less to sign. But we never had a “ceiling” of £4m and it was oft-stated that, If it was proven to be worth it, they’d go beyond it. They did so for Albian Ajeti and that was no shining success or sea-change.
We also have to account for inflation. We wanted Idah- Norwich knew that and got what they and their fans think is a good deal. Sheffield United fans thought the same about the fee we paid for Trusty and Spurs fans think the same about CCV.
This early into our non-sea-change period (in my opinion) only the Spurs fans have been proven palpably wrong. Trusty is doing well but it’s too early to say he’s a success but the team he’s playing in is successful and he’s contributed to that.
We need to watch developments over a longer period than a year and a bit of Brendan2 in order to determine the vague outline of a strategy. We will never have the detail disclosed to us.
Paul67 et al
The $64,000 question in all this is this…..
How do you “develop” a player without playing him?
AckerBilkCSC
BRRB Last meetup at Shipbank…remember wen I suggested going to a Hamilton or Ayr race meet…and you poo pood it…and then you went to Ayr….fuck you ;-((
Every word.…
https://x.com/RepMTG/status/1857152546915471844
…and to think of the good Celts on here and elsewhere who were banned for trying to warn other Celts about all of these lies mentioned by this lady.